Britain
by Saturn-Jupiter
Summary: Ichigo and the gang travel to England for a school trip. Of course, their lives could never be that simple so they end up bumping into a particularly quirky teenage girl who happens to have had a similar incident to Ichigo - minus the creepy inner hollow.
1. Prologue

Prologue

A heated sigh floated away on the breeze of a late January evening. The frozen dew sat heavy atop plant-life and a thick layer of frost sat on the windscreens of cars. It was, unusually, a clear night. Stars and constellations of silver light glistened brightly against the blue-black sky. Against this provident background, a crouched figure knelt. The figure's own, blue eyes glistened brighter than the stars that occupied the sky above and a relaxed, self-assured smile sat upon the contours of their face.

Despite his uncontrollable mop of spiky chocolate brown hair, his oceanic eyes managed to peer through the dark curtains. His usually healthy complexion had turned raw and red from the intensely cold winters that had occurred as of late. His thin black clothing was of little help in his fight against the cold. The white kimono that lay beneath his black kimono offered a second layer of clothing that provided some, though not much, protection from the weather. The thin black hakama offered his legs no warmth and his socks were actually surprisingly warm.

A noise rang out. Attention was diverted from the cold to the glistening light emanating from the mobile phone that sat, somehow, within a pocket. His shivering red hands ached as they brushed against the cotton hakama until his fingers clasped a warm plastic device. He frowned deeply as he was reminded that his hand would have to once again brave the cold in order for him to read the command issued to him via the mobile. His hand ached once more as it was forced to retreat from the warm pocket in order for him to flip open the mobile to read the command.

The brave light from the phone reflected in his deep blue eyes and as these eyes scanned the message, the man's eyebrows contorted into an apprehensive and worried frown. He stood up sharply. His bones and joints creaked painfully from being forced to maintain such a strict position for such an unfair length of time. He stretched silently; he had experienced pain worse than the pain he felt at that moment. He placed the miniature phone in his pocket and sighed once more before stepping in a flash to a rooftop a mile away.

His foot connected with the roof of a building known by the city's occupants as Millennium Point. He had visited it often in his five-year stay in the region. It was a modern building containing facilities used by local colleges and universities, science exhibitions and an area used for viewing films in 3D that humans called 'IMAX'. It was a strange building, though not as strange as the shopping centre affectionately called the 'Marmite Building'. It appeared to be made of glass at the front and the car park facilities were threefold the size of the building itself.

He crouched as he searched to find a position that was comfortable. The position he finally rested in was one in which his feet dangled precariously over the side of the building as he sat on its very edge. He looked down. The pavement below was many metres down but even if he had fallen from the height at which he now stood; he would have remained uninjured or less injured than a human in any case. As he stared at the floor beneath him, he observed humans exiting the building.

Some were couples, hugging each other for warmth. Some were friends, loud and boisterous; declaring to the world their love of the film they had just sat through. He watched silently. None of them could see him. None of them could if they wanted to see him. Not a single one among them had spiritual energy enough to attract attention, let alone the attention that he had been warned about. Was the information provided to him wrong?

"RAAAAR!"

He shot upwards. His hand leapt to the comforting red material that twisted around the wooden handle of his zanpak-tō. That roar was unmistakable. It was the sound that every Soul Reaper knew, that every Soul Reaper hated to hear. It was the warning of danger and the sound warning that no matter how strong you became, there was always one soul, one human at risk. It was the roar of a hollow and it was closer than he would have wished it to be.

"IT WAS AMAZING!"

The Soul Reaper frowned. He looked down sharply from his perch like an eagle protectively scanning the area surrounding its nest. A family had exited the building. A father, a mother, a daughter and a son. It was the young lady, the daughter, who had screamed out the statement at the top of her lungs. He watched her with interest. She seemed different from the other humans he had observed. She certainly seemed a lot younger than her years.

"Kitty! Don't shout!" commanded the mother who was very similar in appearance to her daughter but different in hair and eye colour and complexion. Her voice was loud and commanding. She seemed to be a woman who disliked those who broke rules and laws and seemed frighteningly familiar to a woman widely feared within the Seireitei, "It was good but it wasn't _that _good."

"I don't know what you were watching but I was watching what is now my favourite film." retorted the girl who had now been identified as 'Kitty'.

"You only like it because there was a _unicorn_ in it!" stated the girl's older brother who appeared to be in his mid-twenties. He was tall, taller than the father, and had a blondish-coloured hair that shimmered silver in the moonlight, "You're so fickle."

"Meh!" shouted Kitty as aggressively as she could make the word sound. It was pathetic. She sounded pathetic as she shouted out a word that the dictionary declares to mean indifference, aggressively. It made the Soul Reaper in charge of Britain smile, "Like I care what you think."

He watched as the family argued playfully. They were walking towards their family car, a large German saloon which would have meant they were rich if the car wasn't a hand-me-down that was over thirteen years old. Kitty was skipping; she seemed quite happy with herself and was on a buzz after watching a film she had clearly enjoyed. He smiled, he missed that atmosphere. It had been over five years since he had been in long-term contact with his friends and he was beginning to miss them.

"What was that?" snapped Kitty. Her face had fallen into a terrified, concerned and worried expression with her frown contorting her previously jovial complexion. Her voice had changed from happiness to utter seriousness in under a second and she had taken up a position that was defensive. Her head snapped from side to side and her long brown hair fluttered behind her as she did so. The Soul Reaper frowned, concerned, as he watched her panic.

"What was what?" asked the father, shorter than his son with black hair, "I didn't hear anything."

"Neither did I." affirmed the mother.

"Face it, Kitty," retorted the older brother, "You're hearing things. Next you'll be talking to yourself. C'mon."

"RAAAAR!"

The Soul Reaper stood up again. How could he have missed it? Had that been what the young girl had heard? He scanned the area. There. Approaching from the city centre, was a hollow. He leapt down from the roof and drew his zanpak-tō. Kitty was staring in the same direction as he. Her mouth had fallen slightly agape and her eyes had widened in recognition of something she had never seen before. The Soul Reaper frowned as he approached her, could she see it?

"Kitty! Kitty! What are you staring at?" asked the brother who, following his sister's gaze, could see nothing but the street leading into Birmingham's city centre. He frowned and turned back to his sister, "Kitty? Is it another ghost, Kitty?"

The Soul Reaper's eyes widened slightly. This girl could see ghosts? And hollows? Her family couldn't but were aware of the girl's ability to see ghosts and seemed to observe her as though waiting for her to walk off and talk to the empty space. He could see their surprise and fear as she took two steps back and nearly stumbled, all the time, her eyes fixated on that one spot. He frowned and tightened his grip on his zanpak-tō.

The hollow was tall. It stood over ten metres into the air and was one of the ugliest hollows he'd come across in a long while. Its white mask was scarred and decorated with five green spots that sat over each of the three eyes the hollow had. The hollow stood tall despite crouching over as it walked about on its arms as a gorilla does. It had a tail which flicked about powerfully and dangerously. A long and disgusting line of saliva fell limply from the creature's gaping mouth in which many white daggers sat.

"Kitty?" asked the mother concerned.

"…" the Soul Reaper stood just within Kitty's peripheral vision but the girl was clearly too terrified to notice him. He watched her. Her eyebrows twitched uncontrollably as they struggled to remain in their frowning state. Her eyes were glazed with fear and horror. Her bottom lip quivered slightly until she gained enough control over it to say, "What is that?"

"HA HA HA! YOU CAN SEE ME, GIRL?" roared the hollow whose voice rang out like a horrifying symphony of broken violins, "YOU LOOK TO BE A DELIGHTFULLY TASTY HUMAN."

Kitty whimpered slightly and took a step back. The Soul Reaper placed a hand on the young girl's shoulder. She turned to face him, eyes wide with fear. Once she looked into his eyes, her eyes relaxed slightly; demanding an answer but somehow, instinctively knowing that he could be trusted with her life. He smiled at her and pushed her back slightly. Her family watched, surprised, as an invisible force pushed back their girl.

"What is that?" asked Kitty, "Who are you?"

"That is a hollow," replied the Soul Reaper, "It is the soul of a human that has turned into something that requires the souls of humans to survive. I am a Soul Reaper. I extinguish these creatures so that they may pass on or go to hell, as is required. I also protect 'wholes', good souls, and humans. You fall into the latter."

"I hadn't noticed," retorted Kitty, "And I asked who you were, not what."

The Soul Reaper hesitated. She was right but… why would she ask for his name? Surely it didn't matter? He stared at her in surprise and observed her family watching from the background. The family seemed quite ok with the fact that their Kitty was talking to thin air. He admired their respect and acceptance of their daughter's gift. He frowned as the weight of the hollow crushed a car, alerting him to its presence which seemed easy to forget.

"What is your name, Soul Reaper?" asked Kitty.

"A SOUL REAPER," interrupted the hollow, "ITS BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I'VE HAD THE PLEASURE OF RIPPING APART A SOUL REAPER."

"Unfortunately, hollow, you shall not be reliving that pleasure anytime soon," replied the Soul Reaper, "Perhaps you'll have better luck in the next life."

"HA HA HA! I SEE SOUL REAPERS ARE AS ARROGANT AS EVER," responded the hollow, crushing another car as it approached the party that the Soul Reaper sought to protect, "PERHAPS I WILL KILL YOUR HUMAN FRIEND AND HER FAMILY FIRST, SO YOU MAY SUFFER."

The Soul Reaper grunted angrily and charged forwards with a high-speed flash-step. Sword raised and sharp, he swung it down over where the hollow's mask was. Roaring as he placed his weight into the blow, he was surprised to have it connect with the pavement below. The hollow had moved. He frowned, frustrated. How could it have moved so quickly, without him seeing it? He swung around on the one foot he had landed on.

The hollow had swiped its massive arm across where the family stood and knocked three of the family members into the wall of Millennium Point which was over twenty metres from where they had been standing. The girl's family members had been knocked unconscious and the girl herself had narrowly avoided the blow by jumping to the side. She had obtained a brush from the hollow's arm but that brush had still been enough to cause severe bruising to her arm.

Alerted by the hollow's speed and power, the Soul Reaper flash-stepped forward and struck a blow to the hollow's back. As his zanpak-tō connected with the flesh of the creature, he realised it was too shallow. He was quickly thrown into a lamppost as the hollow's tail flung him aside. The Soul Reaper's back connected with the lamppost and shattered the glass from which the light escaped. He groaned slightly, his vision had blurred.

"ARGH!" screamed Kitty at the top of her lungs, "What in God's name do you think you're doing?!"

"YOU ARE A FEISTY CREATURE," stated the hollow, laughing with a sick and twisted voice, "SUCH DELECTABLE SPIRITUAL ENERGY!"

The Soul Reaper groaned. He picked himself up and rubbed his head from which small streams of blood now seeped. He span his sword in his hand before grabbing it with his other hand and running at the hollow. With two hands now grasping his zanpak-tō, he swung the sword to slice through the creature's white mask. The blow never hit. He had been forced to withdraw the attack as the hollow had bought Kitty up to his head to use as a human shield. The hesitation had cost him dear; a punch threw him into the German saloon which the family owned.

"Hey!" shouted Kitty, "Don't scratch the BMW!"

"I'm more concerned about saving you at the moment, child!" retorted the Soul Reaper as he picked himself up from the ground. He used his weapon to steady himself and he glared at the hollow. This was a tricky hollow, no doubt. Clearly, he was out of practice. To allow such a pathetic creature to win one over on him was unforgivable. He swung his sword about in his hand and sighed, "Let go of the girl, hollow."

"AND MISS OUT ON SUCH A MEAL? I THINK NOT SOUL REAPER."

"Look, I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement," said Kitty, "Preferably one that doesn't involve me being eaten, kimono dude being killed or my family being injured."

"YOU TALK AN AWFUL LOT FOR SOMEONE WHO CAN BE EASILY CRUSHED BY MY HAND."

"I'm a Gemini."

Then, fell a moment that rarely emerges its ugly head on the battlefield. It was a moment of silence. This was presumably caused by Kitty's inappropriate, seemingly random and downright irrelevant statement. Thankfully, this silence allowed the Soul Reaper to finally land a solid hit on the hollow whose arm was sliced clean through. The hand fell open as the bloody arm hit the ground. Kitty was thrown from the hand and she quickly picked herself up.

"ARGH!"

Unfortunately, to land this hit, the Soul Reaper had placed himself in the perfect position for the hollow to counterattack. The hollow's jaw enclosed around the Soul Reaper's rib cage before it shook its head and threw the bloody Soul Reaper to the floor beside Kitty. Kitty leapt to his aid. She immediately sat him up, resting his bloody ribcage on her knees and began trying to stop the bleeding by placing pressure on the wounds with her arms.

"What are you doing?" asked the Soul Reaper, coughing up blood.

"I'm a first aider," she replied, "I'm making sure you don't die of blood loss."

"THAT'S THE LEAST OF YOUR PROBLEMS, GIRL."

"Tell me about it." she replied, staring deep into the eyes of the approaching hollow. She frowned angrily and gritted her teeth before sighing and asking the Soul Reaper who lay bloody on her knees, "What can I do?"

Thud.

"What do you mean 'what can I do'?"

Thud.

"What can I do to save you, my family and myself?"

Thud.

"There's nothing you can do. We're doomed now. I can't move my left arm."

"I'M COMING FOR YOU, GIRL!"

"You had to be left-handed didn't you?"

Thud.

"It's not my fault!"

Thud.

"Oh whatever," snapped Kitty, "We haven't got the time. We need to do something now and frankly, I don't care what the consequences are. Right now, I need to protect you and my family so shut up and tell me what to do."

Thud.

"You wouldn't care if it meant you'd die?"

Thud.

"Not at the moment, no."

Thud.

"Sit me against that lamppost and sit in front of me," explained the Soul Reaper, "I'm about to do something very, very illegal."

Kitty did what he asked with astonishing speed. Despite this speed, it occurred to the Soul Reaper that the hollow could have easily stopped her. He figured it must be watching out of curiosity. She sat him against the lamppost, placed his zanpak-tō in his functioning right hand and knelt down before him, staring him straight in the eye with her own, fearless brown eyes. She smiled slightly, "Now what?"

The Soul Reaper raised the sword. It was now in line with Kitty's chest. She looked down at it and frowned, confused. She then looked up and smiled. He could tell that she trusted him completely. He smiled slightly and twitched his hand, the sword responding in kind. She nodded, acknowledging what must be done. He bit his lower lip, took a deep intake of breath and plunged the sword deep into her chest. As he did, he smiled and told her, "My name is Aasa Patorikku."


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

In the capital of England, London, the overhanging grey sky was unleashing sheet after sheet of raindrops. The water cascaded on the city with the same frequency that water pours over the tip of Victoria Falls. Despite the greyness and focused misery of the businessmen and woman who walked the streets at lunchtime, the small group of five were surprisingly cheerful. Cheerful for London anyway.

"Rain, drizzle, soaking rain, fine rain, torrential rain, cold rain, driving rain, spray, bouncing rain, heavy rain, light rain" listed Uryu. He paused slightly and turned to his companions. Staring up at the cloudy, grey sky, Uryu Ishida stated a fact that he knew would get an unpleasant response, "It's amazing how many words the English have for different varieties of rain."

There was a slight pause. Their trainers padded the watery puddles that stretched out across one of London's many bridges. The particular bridge they were on led towards the infamous Big Ben and Houses of Parliament and in the rain they looked like the most unspectacular buildings in the world. Opposite the Houses of Parliament was a less well-known building of equal importance: Portcullis House. Despite the buildings' importance, the rain took away any feeling of awe the five friends may have had.

"Only _you_ would find rain interesting, Uryu." snapped Ichigo. Among his other friends, he stood out the most. Orange or red hair, as it is correctly termed, is fairly uncommon within the British Isles, where the gene is more prominent, so to come across a Japanese citizen with the natural hair colour was certainly something that grabbed many miserable Londoners' eyes.

Londoners would not normally have been surprised by the presence of Japanese teenagers by any means. Tourists were astoundingly common in London and, though it was term time, many schools had trips to London to improve the English of their students or as a History trip. It was for the first reason that Ichigo, Orihime, Uryu, Chad and Rukia were roaming the streets of England's capital city. They were allowed to roam the city without an adult provided they travelled in groups of five and at least one of them carried a mobile that could be contacted.

"It's the only thing we've seen since we've been here." stated Chad simply. His size was another feature of the group that grabbed the attention of the few Londoners who weren't so wrapped up in their lives that they had become blind to other people around them. To the people who did look at him, they wondered why it was necessary for someone to be that big. To them, it seemed, anyone that big had to be very scary and so they all avoided eye contact with him, a fact Chad was used to by this stage in his life.

"No wonder they're all so miserable," reasoned Orihime. She attracted all, if not most, of the male attention for reasons well recorded in previous adventures. Her positively annoyingly sunny disposition was a gift that had been long lost to the many Londoners who had occupied the city for any extended period of time, "I'd be down if it was always so _grey_."

"Ichigo," said Uryu, dragging attention away from the topic of the drizzle, "Why did you bring that?"

Ichigo's frown fell slightly deeper as he followed Uryu's pointed finger. He was pointing at Ichigo's Substitute Soul Reaper Pass. Ichigo rolled his eyes ever so slightly. He untied the rope holding it to his belt and lifted it to eye level. He sighed slightly, passed a glance to Rukia and finally turned to Uryu, "Rukia told me to."

As Ichigo tied the Pass back to his belt, Orihime stopped walking thus bringing the entire group to a sudden and puzzled stop. She suddenly held a finger up to her lips as though she had just had a stunning revelation and stared up at the sky. The rain battered her face as she pondered a way in which to reveal this shocking thought to the rest of the group, "That's a point. Are there hollows in England? And if there are does that mean there are Soul Reapers? And if there _are _Soul Reapers, are they English? The only Soul Reapers we ever met were Japanese. Do they get taught English?"

Initially, the group took it as another of Orihime's strange, irrelevant string of random thoughts but as her words settled in, they realised that what she was saying had some worthy ideas in it. They frowned and eventually all turned to Rukia. Rukia was widely regarded as the source of all knowledge Soul Reaper and Soul related. They would have turned to Ichigo but he was well-known for his complete lack of Soul Reaper basics.

"Well?" asked Ichigo.

"As Orihime said, all of the Soul Reapers in the Soul Society are Japanese and all of the areas of Rukongai you visited were also Japanese." began Rukia before being rudely interrupted.

"WRRAAARRR!"

The five teenagers flinched. They all recognised that sound. It was the sound of a hollow. That answered Orihime's first question in any case. The five, no sooner had they identified which direction the sound had come from, were running towards it. The rain hit their face like bullets as their feet powerfully parted the tiny lakes that lay in the dips of the pavement. The heavy thumps of the hollow could be heard as their own watery thumps took them closer to the creature.

Turning a sharp corner, bringing them to a somewhat abandoned gulley, they could see at the end the giant hollow roaring once more. Ichigo threw his pass to his chest. His body collapsed as his soul, in the form of a Soul Reaper, ran closer to the despicable creature. Rukia lobbed, instead, a small green candy into her mouth and followed suit. The other three had never stopped running. Rukia's body, now being occupied by a replacement soul candy, pulled Ichigo's lifeless body further down the gulley away from prying eyes.

As they came closer to the empty car park at the end of the wet, damp, grey gulley, they heard voices. They frowned – Ichigo's frown instead became slightly more contorted – and came to a sudden, synchronised stop at the end of the alley. They then stood in the entrance of the car park and stared in confusion and awe at what they saw. It was strange seeing an event such as the one before them, unfolding before them. They watched in wonder and raised their eyebrows in joint confusion as the scene developed.

"I said Kidō! Kidō you backwater idiot!!"

"Oh! Well fine! If you want to fight the twenty-five foot tall hollow, feel free to jump in any time!"

"How do you expect to ever do anything right if you can't manage one lousy spell?"

"It's hard to keep this stupid – ARGH! – this stupid thing off me long enough to say the incantation!"

"That's why I was trying to teach you Eishohaki!"

"Oh and what happened last time I did that?"

"It's not _my _fault it literally blew up in your face!"

For the five observers of this conversation, a few of the words were lost on them. After all, the only one of them who could say they were fluent in English was only fluent in American English and so couldn't quite pick up on the idioms used. It was certainly unusual for them to come across an argument in English on their first day in England; especially an argument between a Soul Reaper and what appeared to be an ordinary human.

"Oh just hit the damn thing! If you're not going to do what I told you, you may as well just carry on waving your pathetic excuse for a sword around!" screamed the human. The five examined him.

He had untamed, chocolate brown hair that seemed about as well-looked after as Ichigo's own mane of hair. He had intelligent sea-blue eyes that were glazed over with an emotion that could only be identified as frustration. On his neck was a stripe that went all the way around the back and was bright red; it seemed to be much similar to the insanely decorative tattoos that Renji kept plastered all over his body. He was the same height as Ichigo but had a slightly different build. He had the build of a swimmer: extremely broad shoulders and a thin waist.

He wore a long-sleeved, tight-fitting black shirt underneath a baggy, loose-fitting white shirt with bold, black writing on it declaring 'I AM NARUTO'. Around his waist were blue jeans and on his feet were blue and white trainers. Significantly, on his right hand, he wore a very familiar red glove. On this red glove, which had no material covering the fingers or thumb, was a black and white skull surrounded by blue fire.

"Ich hasse dich!" shouted the Soul Reaper.

"I love you too!"

"ARGH!" screamed the Soul Reaper as her zanpak-tō slid seamlessly through the hollow's white mask. As the hollow dissipated behind her, she sheathed her sword and stormed over to the human before sticking out her tongue and blowing raspberries at him.

"Don't blow raspberries at me!!" responded the human.

"Or what?" asked the Soul Reaper. The group stared at her and examined her with the same curious interest that they had observed the man she had spoken to.

She, obviously, wore the traditional Soul Reaper get-out and strangely looked quite normal and at home in it despite being the first European any of the five observers had ever seen in the Soul Reaper uniform. On her right arm was a purple wristband and around her neck was a choker of the same colour from which, a black pendant hung. The black pendant was that of the triple moon; a full moon flanked on either side by a 'quarter' moon.

Her zanpak-tō, with its wooden-coloured guard, its bright green material on the handle and its three purple tassels, sat sheathed in a wooden sheath that was attached to her back by a strip of blue material. The sheath was connected to this blue sash by several strings and despite the sheath being pointed downwards – with the zanpak-tō's handle pointing towards the ground – the sword did not become unsheathed as it was kept in place by two strips of material.

The Soul Reaper herself was no more than five foot three. She had to look up to speak to the human who was presumably her friend, if not more. She had dark, deep brown eyes that glared angrily and playfully at her friend. She had a bouncy fringe that came to eyebrow level and a metre-long mane of thick, dark brown hair that floated about behind her as she finally came to a stop a metre before the man. She was fairly well endowed but not anywhere near to the degree of Rangiku or Orihime and was evidently a swimmer. Her shoulders were fairly broad and she had a fairly thin waist. She looked a lot older than she was.

"Or I won't teach you anything!" retorted the man after much thought.

"You've been trying to teach me Kidō for the past month!" she said sighing, "Maybe I'm just not cut out for this, Aasa."

Aasa frowned, smiled and placed a hand on the Soul Reaper's shoulder. She sighed and brushed his hand away. She began to walk towards the gulley before stopping suddenly. Her eyes widened in surprise, shock, confusion and a whole host of other emotions that Ichigo and his friends couldn't be bothered to identify. The man turned to where she was looking and ran to her side. Both took up defensive positions and the girl placed her hand over her sword.

"Who are you?" demanded the Soul Reaper.

Aasa, as he had been called by the girl, looked at the group. His eyes widened. He placed a hand, quickly, on the girl's chest and pushed her back. She frowned and looked up at him. She noticed that he had not turned to look at her. She took a step back. She glared aggressively at the two Soul Reapers, Ichigo and Rukia, that stood before her. Though, they observed, her aggression seemed defiant rather than violent.

"Who are they?" asked the Soul Reaper to her friend.

Aasa remained silent, observing the group as though struggling to remember something. His face was contorted with the effort. The Soul Reaper stood in front of him, pushing him slightly to the side and clasping her sword with both of her hands. Aasa tried to tell her to take a step back but as his mouth began to open, Rukia took a step forward. She frowned at Aasa slightly and stared at him. The young Soul Reaper took this as a threat and pointed her sword at Rukia threateningly.

"Who are you?" snapped the Soul Reaper.

"Calm down," said Rukia, keeping her sword sheathed and her hands empty, "We're tourists from Japan-"

"Who just so happen to be Soul Reapers and speak fluent English?" spat the Soul Reaper, changing her stance from one that Rukia recognised as an offensive one to a defensive one, "Don't take the mick."

Ichigo frowned. He was well aware of the English's love of idioms and strange words but he'd never come across one like that. As far as his knowledge stretched, Mick was an abbreviation of the name Michael but clearly, in context, that didn't make any sense. Ichigo elbowed Uryu slightly and as Uryu turned to him, asked, "What did she just say?"

"Taking the mick is like joking," replied Uryu, "It's similar to the other one that we learnt, 'pulling my leg'."

Ichigo's mouth formed an 'o' shape. Ahead, the Soul Reaper lowered her sword and stance. She was looking at Ichigo and Uryu. She then sighed slightly, frowned and turned back to Rukia, "OK, so you're Japanese tourists. I'll believe that they are but you two," she said pointing at Rukia and Ichigo in turn, "Are undeniably Soul Reapers."

Ichigo restrained the need to correct her. After all, technically, he was a 'Vizard'. Ichigo instead stepped forward to stand beside Rukia and looked at the Soul Reaper's face. By the look of her, she wasn't a naturally violent person. She had a kind, open face despite her angry frown. Her mouth was pursed slightly and Aasa, the man behind her, leant over and whispered into her ear. Her frown relaxed and simply became confused. Aasa took a step forward to stand beside her.

"I thought I recognised your face," said Rukia, smiling slightly, "You're Aasa Patorikku."

"I'm surprised you know my name," said Aasa smiling slightly, "I thought everyone wanted as little to do with the 12th Division as possible."

"Where avoidable, yes," replied Rukia, "Are you going to explain what's going on here?"

"Rukia," queried Ichigo, "Could you ask them to speak Japanese? I'm only getting bits and pieces and it's really confusing. Or tell them to talk slower. That might help."

Rukia rolled her eyes slightly, "He asked if you can speak Japanese. He's good at English but you're speaking too fast for him to understand you."

"Japanese?" asked the Soul Reaper in Japanese, "Sure."

"What's going on?" asked Uryu, sick of being left out of the conversation.

"Aasa Patorikku is an unseated officer of the 12th Division but also a member of Gotei-EU. He used to teach English at the Soul Reaper Academy. I'd heard that he'd been assigned to Britain," explained Rukia, "What happened since then… I don't know."

Aasa smiled goofily and the Soul Reaper timidly waved. Her attitude had changed suddenly and without warning, she stopped being aggressive and seemed completely dismissive of whatever threat she thought they had posed originally. The Soul Reaper sheathed her zanpak-tō and began to stare up at the sky as though her friend would sort everything out and she no longer needed to worry about the situation.

"Same kinda thing that I heard had happened to you," replied Aasa, "Ours worked out a bit differently but that was partly because a certain someone showed up and decided that Kitty," he said pointing at the young Soul Reaper, "Would be better off with her own powers. We had a huge incident and here we are."

"That's not very specific." stated Chad.

"A bit of detail wouldn't hurt anyone." agreed Orihime.

"A dude named Urahara turned up," explained Kitty, "He said I'd be better off with my own Soul Reaper powers which were apparently 'latent within me', stabbed me in the chest and abdomen and then trained me, chased me, threw me in a hole, tried to kill me… he was a nice guy actually."

There was a long and inexplicable silence. Everyone had had experience with Urahara and whilst none of them had quite seen the same side to him as Ichigo, all were aware that he wasn't always quite as nice as he appeared to be. What shocked Ichigo was the knowledge that she had gone through what he had and still saw him as a nice person. Even Ichigo, who considered himself a friend of Urahara's, had severe reservations about the slightly eccentric man.

"You met Urahara?" asked Ichigo.

Kitty nodded.

"And he trained you?" asked Ichigo.

Kitty nodded.

"And you still think he's nice?" asked Ichigo.

Kitty nodded, "He reminds me of this TV character called the Doctor. He's a blond eccentric, were he not Japanese, I'd swear he was English."

"I swear you're obsessed with that programme," snapped Aasa before introducing Kitty, "Anyway, this is Katherine Collins but she prefers the name Kitty. She's fluent in four languages because of her parentage and she's been a Soul Reaper for the past three months."

"Uh…" the group was left speechless.

"Aasa, take them to the apartment," said Kitty, "I'll meet you there. About now, Duncan will be wondering why my unconscious body isn't breathing."


	3. Chapter 2

**Authors Note: Thanks to everyone who's favourited my story. I have to say, I was surprised, I was expecting people to say how utterly pants it is. Criticism is warmly accepted and if you have any suggestions, I'll hear them out but don't be surprised if they don't make it. Thanks again guys.**

Chapter Two

Aasa had taken them to the apartment whilst having a lengthy explanation of the events that had unfolded since his assignment. They told him the story of Rukia's capture and their mission to rescue her. They told him about the Bounts and the Vizards and every other story they thought would be of interest to him. During these stories he simply listened, occasionally asking for a little bit more detail.

It wasn't long before they entered a building of flats that looked more like a hotel than a building of apartments. They were informed by Aasa that it was student accommodation for young people studying at universities local to London and that it was quiet only because the students had already broken up for the holidays. Upon being queried as to why Kitty was there, he gave no response and instead ushered them into the lift.

The lift stopped at the fifth floor and they walked through a series of samey, white corridors with red, stained carpets and clinical, yellow lights until they arrived in front of an oak brown door with the number '59' in gold on it. Aasa knocked on the door. After a few seconds, the handle turned and Kitty answered the door. She smiled and asked them to come inside. Her hair was now in a loose plait and she was wearing a white blouse with a black skirt.

The small apartment was similar in colours to the corridors outside though the lights were less bright and garish and were instead warmer. After walking through the door, immediately to the right was a room with two single beds in it and an en suite bathroom. Directly ahead was a front room/kitchen combo and to the left was a wall. They walked in and were invited to sit on the two sofas present in the room.

The front room was boring and plain. It had a television and a desk and the kitchen was equipped with the correct utensils but the room lacked atmosphere. The five friends sat awkwardly, not feeling comfortable, especially as they were under the watchful gaze of Aasa who stood leaning on the mantelpiece. Eventually, Kitty waltzed over with a pot of tea in her hand and several cups. A carton of milk and saucer of sugar already sat on the table with seven spoons. Kitty then sat on the floor and smiled.

"Right," began Kitty in Japanese, "You know who we are now, pardon my language, who the hell are the rest of you?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki, Substitute Soul Reaper." declared Ichigo.

"Uryu Ishida, Quincy." added Uryu.

"Orihime Inoue." stated Orihime timidly.

"Sado Yatsutora," explained Chad, "They call me Chad."

"Oh, okay," said Kitty, "Any questions?"

"What're you still doing here Aasa?" asked Rukia, "Haven't they come after you yet?"

"They've been a bit tied up recently. Besides, the Gotei-EU look after their own. They'll give me a month to report back and then they'll cover everything up for me. They'll make sure Kitty stays below the radar and as long as you lot keep your mouths shut, she'll stay safe," said Aasa, "I've been training her to suppress her spiritual pressure for the past two months so they won't notice her large, slightly odd spiritual energy either."

"What's this Gotei-EU stuff?" asked Uryu.

"All Soul Reapers are Japanese or of Japanese descent," said Rukia somehow, out of nowhere, managing to whip out a sketchpad so she could continue explaining with drawings, "We're all taught American English but then those who are fluent in other languages, English UK is included as a foreign language, are assigned to a subdivision. The subdivisions are Gotei-EU, Gotei-Asia, Gotei-Africa and Gotei-South America and Gotei-Australasia."

"Hmmm," said Ichigo, "So… what's your zanpak-tō's name?"

RING RING RING.

Kitty frowned. It was a deep and fed-up frown. The sort of frown that all English people can be seen carrying on a Monday morning as they travel to work or school. She wearily walked over to the kitchen and picked up a mobile. She glared at the mobile. She pressed down on one of the buttons, sighed as loudly as was physically possible, and threw it at Aasa who caught it in an incredibly ungracious manner.

"What is it?" asked Orihime.

"Hollow." sighed Kitty.

"This is weird," said Aasa, "The numbers have been steadily increasing. This is unheard of in Britain, Hollows are extremely uncommon here. Have you been suppressing your spiritual energy properly?"

"Yes!" snapped Kitty, "Get off my back!"

"All the time?" asked Rukia, taking (to Kitty's annoyance) Aasa's side.

"…" paused Kitty before smiling innocently and asking, "I'm supposed to do it _all _the time?"

"YES!" shouted Aasa, "What you thought I told you for fun?!"

"WRAAAR!"

"Fantastic!" declared Aasa sarcastically, "It's outside."

"Convenient!!" stated Kitty, smiling like a Cheshire cat. She frowned distinctly as Ichigo reached for his Substitute Soul Reaper Pass, Rukia reached for her Soul Candy, and as the others each stood up preparing to leap out of the window and steal all the credit. Kitty raised a hand, "Let me handle this. It's just a Hollow after all."

Kitty then leapt out of the window, after, of course, being whacked in the head by Aasa's special glove. The group ran to the two windows and leant out of them. With a balcony beneath them, the thought of falling out of the window was a concern that did not even cross their minds. Kitty landed doggedly and ungraciously, with her knees bent and arms outstretched. They found that they could hear everything she was saying despite the distance.

"Oi! Ugly!" shouted Kitty in English, her mother tongue, "Lookin' for moi?"

The insertion of a random French word seemed to grab the lorry-size Hollow. It turned around faster than any one of them had expected it to. Even Kitty seemed a little thrown off by its speed. It was like any other Hollow: ugly, big, not really much of a threat except it seemed a lot faster than any other Hollow and a smidge uglier to boot. None of this deterred Kitty who proceeded to unsheathe her slim sword and clasp it with both hands.

"Will she be okay?" asked Ichigo.

"She should be." replied Aasa.

"That Hollow seems faster than normal." stated Uryu.

"It is." said Rukia.

"Are you _sure _she'll be okay?" asked Ichigo, pressuring slightly.

"Ye Lord!" shouted Kitty in Japanese as the Hollow stared at her, "Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man!" the Hollow leapt forward and threw a dagger-like tail at her which she blocked with her weapon and continued, "Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws!" Kitty leapt from under the Hollow's tail which she had been blocking with her sword, revealed her left palm to the Hollow and shouted, "Hadō thirty-three: Sōkatsui!"

A bright blue beam of light leapt from her palm and exploded. There was a slight roar which was covered by the deafening ring of the explosion. Kitty landed slightly further down the building-enclosed road. She was smiling, clearly chuffed to bits that she'd managed to remember the entire incantation and pull off the spell. She began to sheath her sword. Something fired through the smoke, rubble and dust.

"KITTY!" screamed Aasa, realising that the fast moving object was the Hollow, unharmed by Kitty's attempt at Kidō, "MOVE!"

The Hollow was blindingly fast. Had the observers of the battle not been so adept at following fast movements, the Hollow would have appeared to have vanished. They tracked it as it charged, clawing up the floor, towards Kitty. Kitty's eyes had just about enough time to widen. The claws rose. The claws fell. The claws connected. With the rubble. Kitty sighed.

"What the hell is she playing at?!" snapped Aasa, "If she had reacted a second slower, that flash-step wouldn't have got her far away enough in time!"

Ichigo passed a look to Rukia. Should he interfere? She shook her head. She was curious to see what Kitty could do; besides, Rukia seemed to say, she hasn't released her zanpak-tō yet. It wasn't as if Kitty hadn't dodged the move either, she was still completely unharmed, though, that state didn't seem as though it were going to last for much longer.

The Hollow turned around quickly and launched itself at Kitty. She blocked the attack but was thrown into a tree from the sheer strength of the blow. The tree cracked and fell in two. Kitty sat at its base, picking herself up and seemingly groaning. She turned around, as though, for some reason, expressing concern for the tree. She frowned upon seeing its condition and glared at the Hollow which was charging for another attack.

Uryu raised an eyebrow. She'd turned around in a battle to check the condition of a tree? That sort of behaviour was something he'd never seen any Soul Reaper express. On further reflection, it was the sort of behaviour he'd never seen anyone express in any sort of battle. It was just inefficient and stupid. It was an opening, turning around, a huge opening. He frowned. What stupid thing did the girl plan on doing next?

"Purify!" shouted Kitty. She was now holding her zanpak-tō in her left hand, in the sky at a forty-five degree angle, two inches away from her forehead. It looked slightly odd but everyone watching recognised it as the action of releasing a Soul Reaper's zanpak-tō. Everyone, apart from Aasa, watched Kitty with fascination and anticipation as she shouted the name of her zanpak-tō, "Purlicorne!"

There was a huge blast of white light, tinged slightly by strings of yellow light much akin to that produced by the sun. Once the audience was able to see again, they carefully observed Kitty's Shikai. The strange sheath had vanished. The weapon that was now grasped in Kitty's hand was peculiar in its shape and size. It retained its original handle but had lost the guard and replaced the three purple tassels with three tiny purple blades. The weapon was as long as Kitty's legs and the blade was not like that of a sword. Instead, the white blade was more akin to that of an animal's horn.

"Purlicorne?" asked Orihime, struggling to pronounce the unfamiliar name.

"It's French," stated Uryu, the brain box, "Literally translates as 'pure unicorn'."

"That's why her blade is pure white and shaped like a horn." added Aasa.

Ichigo was silent. Something had caught his eye. Something unusual and familiar about Kitty's Shikai. Kitty's right eye had changed colour. The iris of Kitty's right eye had become a glowing, golden yellow despite her left eye retaining her natural mud-brown colour. The appearance of that colour was strikingly familiar to Ichigo, the colour was admittedly not as worrying as it once had been but nonetheless: it did raise some questions.

"What type is it?" asked Rukia, "I've never heard of a zanpak-tō with a foreign name."

"Watch." stated Aasa.

The Hollow had only just recovered from the blast of light and was charging fast towards Kitty with renewed anger and frustration. Kitty smiled slightly. She raised Purlicorne above her head, as though intending to swing it down and held it there. The Hollow was charging. It didn't appear as though Kitty was going to block the attack. Yet, when the group fidgeted, Aasa merely passed them a confident look.

Kitty roared, "Mettez fin à toute la douleur!"

Suddenly, the white blade took on an iridescent, golden glow. The Hollow charged and connected its claws once more with the ground. Kitty had leapt over its head and sliced cleanly through the beast's tail. Yet, to the observers' surprise, the Hollow didn't cry out at all and no blood had escaped the amputated body part. Instead, the Hollow leapt around and tried to attack again as a mysterious golden glow hovered over the injury.

Charging once again resulted in Kitty cleanly removing the Hollow's right forearm. There was once again no roar of pain or blood. It was as though the Hollow couldn't feel pain. A final charge ended it, with Kitty slamming the tip of Purlicorne into the Hollow's mask which subsequently fell to pieces as the Hollow faded from its existence in the World of the Living. Kitty sighed with relief, stretched and sealed Purlicorne before sheathing it.

"It's a healing type?" asked Rukia.

Aasa nodded.

"Ichigo?" asked Orihime, noticing that he was brooding, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" said Ichigo, lying.

**A/N: Purlicorne translates (as said above) literally as 'pure unicorn' and completely disregards the French rule of the adjective following the noun so I apologise to all French speakers.**

**Pur = pure**

**licorne = unicorn**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks again to everyone who is keeping track of the story and I'm terribly sorry for not updating yesterday... I would come up with a story about me having too much homework but that would be a lie. I was, in fact, watching Monty Python in German. Sorry guys. Anyways:**

Chapter Three

"Purlicorne?" asked Rukia, "I've never heard of a zanpak-tō like that."

Kitty had just arrived through the window and had gracefully leapt back into her lifeless body. She stretched as she got up from the floor. She had landed in a particularly uncomfortable position and so her body was sore but, fortunately, not bruised or broken. Kitty sat on the floor as everyone else but Aasa found a seat to sit in. Kitty was about to explain her zanpak-tō but Aasa jumped in before she was able to.

"Purlicorne's like Kitty, she doesn't like to hurt living things so her ability, 'mettez fin à toute la douleur', stops any wounds she inflicts from hurting." explained Aasa, "Kitty considers herself to be a pacifist."

"Mettez fin à toute la douleur translates literally as 'Put an end to all of the pain'." added Kitty.

"Why are you in London, anyway?" asked Chad, determined not to fade into the background as he so often did.

"Work experience." said Aasa before Kitty could open her mouth. Kitty didn't like being constantly interrupted. Kitty hated being spoken for. Kitty wanted to impale Aasa with Purlicorne, "She's got two weeks in the House of Commons working for her local MP."

"How old are you, Kitty?" asked Rukia, purposely directing the question at Kitty.

"She's sixteen." replied Aasa. Vicious glares poured towards Aasa from Kitty. Under her breath, Kitty was swearing and restraining herself. Ichigo and his friends only recognised the stream of swear words because Keigo had made it his personal business to learn every single one of them, "Turned sixteen a week ago."

"What does Purlicorne look like?" asked Orihime, having been told by Rukia and Ichigo that zanpak-tō's had physical manifestations and took a shape other than that of a weapon.

Aasa began to open his mouth before realising he couldn't actually answer the question. Kitty leapt to her feet in joy and screamed, "HA! TRY ANSWERING THAT FOR ME, FOOL!"

Kitty's outburst silenced everyone, though it only seemed to silence Aasa for a brief two seconds, "Stop being so childish!"

"I'm sixteen! I'm still legally a child!" retorted Kitty with a half-hearted shout, "Just 'cuz you're old doesn't mean you can tell me what to do!"

"No!" replied Aasa, "I can tell you what to do because you're an idiot who'll get herself killed without help!"

"Glad to see you think so highly of me!" snapped Kitty, "I'm going for a walk!" Kitty then, true to her word, stormed out of the room after abandoning her body and left. She seemed frustrated to a point that no one else could really understand and so everyone looked at Aasa for answers, only, he had none.

*

In the streets of London, a scream echoed before being followed by a loud and obtrusive bang. The source of the noise was a narrow gulley-way. The drizzle seemed to suddenly turn into a torrential downpour. Two fists had collided with brick and left a distinctive crater in the wall. Then, the body which the fists were attached to, fell to its knees and crouched down, sobbing loudly and distinctly.

A damp cat, seeking shelter, scurried past, pausing for a while to watch the sobbing mass of black. The copper, floating hair had turned grim, black and drenched as the rain bombarded the crouching figure. Her hands clasped together for warmth, giving the distinct impression of prayer. Her eyes, hidden by her eyelids, had turned raw red and tears had dried on her face; her tear ducts no longer able to produce the much needed tears.

From the clouded darkness, a shining creature appeared. The rain slowed, gradually becoming suspended in the sky. The plops of the heavy droplets had vanished. The Soul Reaper sat up sharply upon hearing the unforgettable sound of hoof against cement. Three tails whipped the wind lightly, producing the wisping sound that Kitty was so familiar with; her brother had played tennis. The sound of his racket slamming into the air particles was much like the whooshing she could hear behind her.

Kitty's raw, red eyes looked up and observed her zanpak-tō. Purlicorne stood behind her, majestically staring at her with sympathetic golden eyes. Standing at exactly twenty hands high, Purlicorne was a creature unlike any other. She was in most senses of the word, a unicorn.

Purlicorne's glistening golden eyes lay, obscured slightly, by the long, wavy and delicate strands of silky white fringe that enveloped the base of her horn. The horn was straight and undecorated, it sprouted from the centre of her forehead, hidden by the unruly but beautiful locks of hair and was as beautiful and bright as sunlight itself. At the very base of the horn, small flickers of burning red fire could be seen, as though a red ruby sat at the very end.

Two long ears penetrated the strands of hair and flickered about with every miniscule sound that pounded the airwaves. The ears were as long as the head on which they sat and they too were as white as snow. From the back of her ears, on both sides, three tiny purple tassels dangled from delicate strands of black string. Purlicorne's mane was extremely long and enclosed both sides of her neck as it stretched down towards the floor, missing its target by only twenty centimetres. At the ends of each of Purlicorne's delicate yet powerful white limbs, were golden, cloven hooves that appeared as sharp and dangerous as those of a lion.

At the end of Purlicorne's spinal chord, one would have expected to see a single tail made of hair, but instead there were three tails, each being like that of a lion's but pure white. Before the tiny flicker of hair at the end of each of the three tails, there was a significant amount of red material tied around the tail. This red material was on each tail and on each tail, a length of the red material was loose and wavered about in the blasts of wind that occasionally passed through the alley.

"Kitty?" asked Purlicorne, her voice soft and delicate as snow whilst retaining a knowledge and authority many many hundreds of years over her age, "Look at me, Kitty."

Kitty looked up, her eyes raw and red. She sniffed loudly, her nose trying to recover some of the lost fluid that was trying to escape. Her soaked body had a moment of dryness as the rain ceased to fall whilst she conversed with the spirit of her sword, the very spirit that was a section of her soul.

"Are you okay?" asked Purlicorne. Her wielder was English so, unfortunately, she herself had picked up some of the English quirks. Such as, for instance, asking if someone is okay when it is outrageously astoundingly obvious that they are not.

"Do I look okay?" asked Kitty, squeezing water from her clothing to make a point.

"You look a bit wet." replied Purlicorne. For this reply, Purlicorne received the glare of death to which she responded by saying, "What's wrong?"

"How should I know?" snapped Kitty.

"Well that's stupid," asked Purlicorne, "Aren't you the only person who _can_ know?"

"Oh don't go all mystical on me now," hissed Kitty, "There is something wrong with me, with you, with us. I can feel it. Every time I release you, there's something wrong. I can't see out of one eye and I feel physically sick. Then when I seal you, I get this outburst of anger and my patience dwindles away as if it was never even there. Now, I'll ask you, what's wrong?"

*

"What's up with her?" asked Rukia.

Aasa shrugged, "I don't know. I mean, I know I annoy her when I answer questions before she can but every time she seals her sword, she just explodes."

Ichigo bit his thumb and looked up. He had been staring at the floor and thinking for several minutes and had only looked up during that time to watch Kitty storm out of the room. He passed Rukia a look, briefly examined the expressions on his friend's faces and turned to face Aasa, as he had before been staring at the window, "She trained with Urahara, right?"

Aasa nodded.

"Were you there during the training?" asked Ichigo, his eyes glistening with concern as his mind sought frantically to make sure that the connections he thought would connect, didn't.

Aasa shook his head from side to side, "No. Why?"

Ichigo bit his lip slightly, "How was Urahara when he left?"

"His crazy, normal self, I guess."

"He didn't seem weighted down with anything?"

"No, I don't think so."

"What's with the police interrogation, Ichigo?" asked Uryu, slightly out of the loop or at least no seeing the connection between Ichigo's predicament, Urahara and Kitty's. Retrospectively, Uryu Ishida observed that he should have but given Urahara's crazy nature, questioning anything in regards to him was a wise move.

"Listen." stated Chad simply, silently being able to slowly find links in Ichigo's trail of thoughts just as Rukia and Orihime were. He was also aware that if Uryu commanded Ichigo's attention too much, an argument would probably break out and any hopes of finding out what was going on would vanish instantly.

"One of the stages of Urahara's training can go wrong, has Kitty been acting weird lately? Wrapped up in herself, looking pained, talking to herself?" asked Ichigo.

"Look where is this going?" asked Aasa.

"I think she might have an inner hollow." stated Ichigo.

Aasa frowned.

**A/N: Please note the use of 'think'. Anyways, before I give too much away, just a little language note for those weird enough to like languages i.e. people like me:**

**mettez fin à toute la douleur = put an end to all of the pain**

**It literally, literally translates as 'put end at all the pain' but that sounds well dodgy so you end up with my slightly less dodgy translation. I also apologise in advance if I've got any French wrong, please correct me if I have; I'm not exactly renowned for my gift of using-the-dictionary-correctly.**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: I think it was in Chapter One, but I used a German phrase and I'm not sure whether anyone would have understood it. I may have given a translation but just in case:**

**Ich hasse dich = I hate you**

**Anyways, here is the next chapter:**

Chapter Four

"An inner hollow?" asked Aasa, "That does not sound like a good thing."

"Trust me," said Ichigo with a little too much emphasis, "It isn't."

"It sounds familiar. I'm sure I heard Captain Kurotsuchi lecturing us about it at some point. Something to do with hollowification and arrancar and vizards," said Aasa, "I'm sure that was also the lecture when he was asking for volunteers to help him improve experiment after-care. I don't think they ever came back…" only Orihime, who had forgotten just how evil Kurotsuchi was, was surprised by the story, "So, what do you mean? Is Kitty in danger?"

"If Ichigo's right, she might not be the only one." stated Rukia simply.

"If she does have an inner hollow," began Ichigo, "Eventually the hollow will start trying to seize control from her. The only way to stop the hollow completely gaining control is to fight it into submission but it can be pretty dangerous doing that."

"How would you know if someone had one?" asked Aasa.

"They act distracted and they become scared of using their own powers in case it starts trying to come out." said Rukia before Ichigo could say anything, "And in Ich- some cases, their eyes can change colour."

"To what colour?" asked Aasa a little too urgently.

"Gold."

Aasa fell silent.

*

"Well?" shouted Kitty to her taken-aback zanpak-tō, "What's wrong with me?"

"I'd be more than happy to help you find out, kleine Bengel."

Kitty and Purlicorne frowned and looked up in perfect synchrony. Sitting on the ledge of a window on the third floor of a building of flats, was a Soul Reaper clad in the traditional black get-out. Kitty immediately drew her zanpak-tō, unable to identify the Soul Reaper as he was encased in thick shadows. As the Soul Reaper began to shift his body weight in order to flash-step to the floor, Purlicorne stepped protectively before Kitty.

The Soul Reaper was surprised when he flash-stepped and arrived facing a unicorn instead of his intended target. The thing must have moved pretty fast to get there before him. They frowned and stepped forward, allowing light to cascade down upon their face. As a result of this, Purlicorne stepped back and Kitty sheathed her sword, running towards the Soul Reaper and giving him a hearty hug.

"I wasn't expecting _this _reaction from my sixteen-year old daughter."

"Halt die Klappe, dad," snapped Kitty, "It's nice to see you again. How's Germany?"

"Alright, could be better," replied Kitty's father, Alphonse Merker, "How's here?"

"Meh."

Purlicorne watched contentedly as Kitty embraced her six foot tall father. He was a Soul Reaper who worked for the Gotei-EU and was a seated officer of the twelfth division. He had short black hair that was neatly cut at the back but a little too unruly at the top. His eyes were a dull yet pretty sea blue and his rounded face had a single scar that ran from his left ear to his left cheek.

Kitty had only found out recently that her father was a Soul Reaper and had been told that Central 46 had been lax on him because of his rank and because he had genuinely fallen in love with Kitty's mother. She had been ecstatic when she found out and for some reason, Aasa had never made the connection between their identifiably similar traits.

"Is this Purlicorne?" he asked, his voice retained a heavily Bavarian accent but pronounced the words as an Englishman would. There were no 'v's' where 'w's' were and no 'z's' where 'th's' were.

"Yup!" replied Kitty proudly as Purlicorne nodded, careful not to hit anyone with her metre-long horn.

"She's very elegant." stated Alphonse, who was known by his friends as Alfie for the sake of simplicity.

Purlicorne's pure white coat took on a pinkish tinge around her face and she averted her eyes, giving off all the signs of being embarrassed by the compliment. Kitty stroked her hair and smiled, proud as anything that she was blessed with such a beautiful zanpak-tō. Alfie smiled slightly and looked up at the sky. He observed the rain's non-movement.

"Why can you move about if Purlicorne has stopped time?" asked Kitty.

"Don't know," replied Alfie, "It must be because we're related."

"Why're you here?" asked Kitty, "I'm sure there's probably some work you're supposed to be getting on with."

"I came to see how you're getting along, and I have to say, I'm very impressed. You've already achieved manifestation. That can take hundreds of years. Your bond with Purlicorne must be really strong," explained Alfie, "The next time I visit you'll be waving your bankai around in my face!!"

Kitty frowned, "Bankai?"

*

"So you think Kitty might have an inner hollow?" asked Uryu, simplifying the conversation to a simple question.

Ichigo and Rukia nodded at the same time. Ichigo nodded in response to the question and Rukia nodded to acknowledge the answer from Ichigo. Orihime and Chad – Chad unsurprisingly – were silent as Aasa paced the length and breadth of the room like a mad lion pacing its miniscule cage. Aasa sighed and eventually sat down, though, when he did, he continued to tap his feet and twiddle his thumbs.

"Could it be something else?" asked Chad.

"It could be," stated Ichigo, "But…" he paused as in a flash he was reminded of those piercing golden eyes, "I can't think of any other reason why they'd be _that _colour."

"The whites of her eyes didn't go black though." observed Orihime, surprising everyone by her skills of observation.

"It could be something else then," agreed Ichigo before turning to Rukia and Aasa and asking, "Got any ideas?"

Rukia chewed on her fist for a second before her violet-blue eyes lit up brightly and a makeshift light bulb appeared, glistening powerfully, above her head, "I heard once that some zanpak-tō can change the appearance of their wielder. Maybe Purlicorne changes Kitty's eye colour."

"It's the most likely explanation," said Uryu, "Ichigo was probably exaggerating the facts again."

"Say that again, quincy boy!" snapped Ichigo, leaping to his feet to challenge Uryu Ishida, the supposed Last Quincy.

"You… were… probably… exaggerating… the…. facts… again," said Uryu, following Ichigo's command, "Happy?"

"No way! I'm not exaggerating! I was being completely reasonable!" shouted Ichigo, "_You _just can't stand the fact that you can't be the informative know-it-all!"

"I knew you were jealous of my genius Ichigo but this is out of line."

"Out of line! I'll show you out of line!"

"Are they always like this?" asked Aasa as the argument continued but with slightly more verbal insults flying about.

"They're usually worse." replied Rukia, "You should see Ichigo and Renji fighting."

"And this guy beat how many captains?" asked Aasa.

RING! RING! RING!

"WRAAAR!"

"Hollow?" asked Uryu, easily breaking away from the argument.

Aasa nodded as he flipped open his Soul Society provided mobile phone. He frowned slightly and passed it to Rukia. Rukia and Ichigo left their bodies and were about to leap out of the window into the rain when it occurred to them that they had no idea where that road was, them not being local to London. It had occurred to them that they could use – well Rukia – their abilities to search for the hollow's reitsu. The main reason they stopped was to check Aasa's reaction. He and the others were already running down the stairs.

*

They arrived in a park. A large vast park with a lot of grass and slightly less shrubbery than one would expect. The rain had been so torrential that their feet sank into the grass and mud. The trees, which sat at the parks borders with the road, offered shelter from the mud and heavy rain. Ichigo and Rukia had arrived at the park a little faster as they had flash-stepped the last fifty metres. Though, much to their disgust, they had landed in a thick pile of mud and their white tabi socks were now a pleasant shade of brown.

The others waited under a tree which lay a little over ten metres from where Ichigo and Rukia faced the hollow. It occurred to Rukia almost immediately that it was not an ordinary hollow. It was an adjucas. It was the size of an elephant and its body was coated with the familiar hollow-white armour of the arrancars. Instead of being as most hollows with only a white mask and hole to show for its hollow-ness, this one was a humongous lion in all aspects but one; it had a hole in its left paw.

"That's a big kitty-cat." observed Aasa.

"Someone say Kitty?" asked a slightly blurred, just-coming-out-of-flash-step Kitty whose features were distorted for a second as she arrived beside Ichigo and Rukia with an unfamiliar Soul Reaper.

"Who's that?" asked Ichigo.

"Alphonse Merker, 8th Seat of the 12th Division, Member of the Gotei-EU for Germany," began Alfie, "And father of Kitty Collins."

"…," began Ichigo, "I'll ask later. We've got bigger problems."

"Christees," exclaimed Kitty, "That's a big fish!"

"Fish?" asked Ichigo.

"English idiom, 'we've got bigger fish to fry'." said Kitty before pointing to the adjucas and stating, "Fish."

"Actually I'm an adjucas, stupid Soul Reaper." snapped the hollow.

"Is that good or bad?" asked Kitty in a whisper to Ichigo, Rukia and Alfie.

"Bad." the three replied.

"How bad?"

"Very bad."

"What's it doing here? If it's 'very bad' by your standards than that means it's a hell of a lot stronger than the hollows I normally bump into. Why the hell is it here?" asked Kitty.

The three shrugged despite all three of them having a certain someone in mind. Before any of them could suggest the culprit, the adjucas leapt forward at astonishing speed and forced the four to flash-step in separate directions to escape. Ichigo and Alfie then landed and stood on the air as the adjucas leapt towards Kitty on its left. Kitty went to block with her sealed zanpak-tō but seemed to instinctively know that it would need a lot more than that.

"Purify, Purlicorne!" shouted Kitty. She slammed her sword into the adjucas's' swinging paw but was thrown far into the air and caught by Ichigo who was closest to her. Both he and her looked down at Purlicorne and found the weapon still in its sealed form. Kitty's eyes widened in surprise as Ichigo's widened as they observed the oncoming claws, "ARRRGH!"

To stop the blow, Ichigo had to throw Kitty who was caught by her father before hitting the ground. Ichigo was holding back the paw with Zangetsu whose cloth was only partly away from the blade. With a shocking outburst of power, Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshou pushed back the adjucas's' paw and irreparably damaged the white armour covering it as well as leaving a large dent of dead grass and scorching mud on the floor.

Meanwhile, as the adjucas began to recover and charge at Ichigo, Rukia was preparing her zanpak-tō and had already unsealed it. The pure white sword, glistening beautifully as the mud and rain nearby turned to ice and snow, tilted as Rukia prepared to encase the adjucas in thick ice, "Tsugi no mai, Hakuren."

A huge blast of energy charged towards the adjucas and froze it's three paws in place. It roared in fury and failed to notice Ichigo who was charging in with Zangetsu raised above his head. Zangetsu hit the adjucas's' tail which moved to block the cleaver just as it was about to make contact with its face. With no other option, except to be thrown into some mud, Ichigo roared, "Getsuga Tenshou!"

Another devastating crescent moon of bright blue energy tore through the adjucas's' thick white armour. Ichigo readied Zangetsu again, aware that it would probably take more than two shikai-level getsugas to take down an adjucas. Heck, it took one getsuga to take down a gillian. Ichigo calmed his nerves as he watched the thick cloud of smoke disappear. The adjucas's' piercing yellow eyes were glowering at Kitty who was now stomping the mud in frustration as Purlicorne was not releasing.

Ichigo's eyes widened. The adjucas darted towards Kitty. The yellow eyes sparkled with vicious intent. Rukia tried to unleash another onslaught of ice as Ichigo's previous getsuga had tore through it. Alfie watched with interest. Kitty pivoted on her feet. Her eyes widened as they met the hollow's. Ichigo flash-stepped hoping it would be fast enough and soon enough to block the hollow's attack. Kitty raised her sealed zanpak-tō and cried out its name once more.

"PURIFY, PURLICORNE!!"

"You're mine!"

"KITTY!"

The adjucas stopped. Ichigo paused mid-stride. Alfie smiled intently. Rukia reined in the Hakuren blast that threatened to freeze the victorious Kitty. The adjucas roared and tried to break the seemingly delicate strands of golden kidō energy that formed the cage that had encased it. Kitty stared up at it as everyone stared at her in surprise. No one had seen Purlicorne perform an ability like that before. Little did they know, it was not Purlicorne anymore and Kitty's left eye had turned a distinct shade of molten gold.

"ICHIGO!" shouted Uryu, the only person on-the-ball-enough to notice that the cage holding the hollow was snapping and cracking all over. It didn't take a second word to grab Ichigo's attention. A point blank getsuga, combined with the two before, forced the adjucas to quickly seek refuge by leaping through a hastily created garganta.

"What was that?" asked Ichigo, landing and sheathing Zangetsu in his cloth handle. The others slowly approached Kitty who was sitting on the floor in a muddy puddle with an unfamiliar sword in her hands and a look of fear in only her right eye. A look of righteous fury glistened in its golden shimmer through her left.

**A/N: Couple of phrases in this:**

**kleine Bengel = little rascal**

**halt die Klappe = shut your mouth**

**In case you hadn't guessed, I'm studying German and French at AS Level.**


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'd like to apologise for the day-late upload. Mom was having a dinner party and I was preoccupied playing Batman Arkham Asylum. Sorry guys. Just a note for people who haven't noticed, I'm trying to update the story on a weekly basis: every Wednesday. I'll let you know if I expect it to be delayed. Sorry again, now enjoy the story:**

Chapter Five

"Why's she sleeping?" asked Chad.

It had been a strange series of events since their arrival in Britain, not that Britain isn't strange without spiritual interference – just look at the red phone boxes and unhealthy obsession with the weather and tea – but the added weirdness of Soul Reapers and oddly powered hollows was definitely making for the strangest school trip they had ever gone on. The idea of there being a Gotei-EU had been simple enough to grasp, as had the idea of an incident similar to Ichigo's but then an adjucas turning up and Kitty having two different zanpak-tōs? They had definitely traversed the line of normality somewhere recently.

Why precisely Kitty had fallen into a deep sleep had remained so was a bit of a mystery until Alfie and Aasa had begun theorising in their weird, creepy 12th Division way. It had been established, by the creepy theorising, that Kitty's zanpak-tō had two names, therefore two different shikai releases, thus two very different abilities, but what they had been unable to agree on was exactly how this had come about and exactly why. In fact, Kitty's two-named zanpak-tō was far more interesting to the two creepy 12th Division officers than Ichigo's inner hollow ever could be. Ichigo was, though he'd never admit it, a little jealous.

"Must be exhaustion." reasoned Aasa.

"Or shock." argued Alfie.

"She'd be unconscious if it were shock." retorted Aasa.

"So not having woken up for three hours doesn't constitute as unconscious?"

"No," stated Aasa, "It would be really bad for her brain if she'd have been unconscious for three hours."

"And I suppose you're an expert on unconsciousness are you?"

"More so than you."

"You're just jealous of my rank."

"8th Seat?" asked Aasa, "I don't think so. The less contact I have with our crazy Captain, the better."

It had occurred to Ichigo early on in his life that arguments either happened to him or transpired around him. If it wasn't him arguing, it was someone else arguing in his general vicinity. Of course, if they weren't fighting then naturally there was some form of fighting going on and there were also the occasions when arguments and fighting transpired at the same time. This was, as Ichigo had discovered, most of the time. Ichigo blamed his dad. That was the simplest explanation.

"Guys?"

The question had been posed in English and so instantly caught the attention of the Japanese in the room because it was, essentially, a foreign language and they're weird and so require staring. Nobody had really noticed her come in. They had, after all, been fixated on all of the juicy but rather disturbing gossip they were over-hearing about a certain psychologically deranged Captain. So when Kitty had entered in her pyjamas and white dressing gown, silent as a ninja, she received several glances translating as 'where the hell did you come from'.

"Could you shut up?" she asked, in English, "I can't sleep."

They were silent and she drearily nodded before trying to walk back to her room. This attempt failed because her father demanded her audience and by joves, was he going to get it, "Catherine Morgan Collins! Get back in here this instance."

"I hate you," she hissed as she walked back in and collapsed into a seated position on the floor, "What?"

"Manifest Purlicorne." stated Alfie simply.

A few eyes widened but they became glazed slightly with disappointment as the reply arrived, "No."

"And why not, young lady?" hissed Alfie.

"She's not Purlicorne at the moment." replied Kitty simply, but significantly still half-asleep.

"What do you mean?" asked Uryu, unable to keep his nose out.

"Her name at the moment is Gerechten Einhorn and you are _really _pissing her off at the moment," replied Kitty, "She says 'let Kitty sleep or I'll run you through with my horn'. Does that answer your question?"

"Well, no," said Uryu, "Not really."

"Good." said Kitty before falling asleep, her head avoiding colliding with the floor only because Chad caught it and lowered it safely to the floor. She was silent as she slept, breathing so quietly that it was easy to forget that she was sleeping on the floor. Everyone watched her for a bit before turning to more important matters, such as the time and the fact that if they didn't get to the meeting point in the next ten minutes, their teacher would _genuinely _kill them. Though, that was less of an issue for Rukia than it was for the living.

"You guys need to leave then?" asked Aasa.

"Yes." said Uryu, restraining deeply the urge to lace his response with heavy sarcasm.

"Do you want to meet again tomorrow morning?" asked Alfie, refusing to let Aasa take charge of the conversation, much to Aasa's discontent.

"Yeah." said Ichigo, wanting but refusing to add more onto the comment.

"What are you guys even doing in London?" asked Alfie.

"School trip for English," explained Chad, "We spend the day walking around, talking to people, visiting museums. That sort of thing."

"Sounds like fun." lied Aasa.

"Oh it is!" cried out Orihime, "We were going to go to this museum where all the dinosaurs are!! I was going to feed the t-rexes!!"

Aasa and Alfie nodded simply, unsure how to respond as Ichigo and his friends dragged the dinosaur-ranting Orihime out of the door and, presumably, the building. The two men then lifted Kitty and tucked her in bed before sitting and staring at each other in the front room. There was a heavy tension between them. A tension and a loyalty to some heinous God that would tear apart the sleeping girl in the room behind them.

*

Ichigo and the gang were walking towards the assigned meeting place; the 'Green' as it is known or 'the large patch of grass that could be interpreted as a roundabout that happens to be opposite the Houses of Parliament' as it is otherwise known. The large group waited for the last two to arrive and unsurprisingly, as the teacher said, they didn't.

"Ichigo?" asked Rukia, speaking for the entire group as she asked him, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." lied Ichigo.

"Don't lie," stated Rukia glowering at him, "You always frown when you're lying."

Ichigo paused, "Wait. I always frown."

"My point exactly," replied Rukia. To respond, Ichigo frowned, not that anyone could actually make out this frown from his normal frown, "Is it about Kitty? I don't think she has an inner hollow, you can relax."

"Yeah."

"Stop worrying Ichigo," said Uryu, "Whatever the reason for her having a zanpak-tō with two names, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about." with that Uryu walked off onto the coach that was waiting to take them to the hotel nearby.

Ichigo frowned and turned to Chad, as Orihime and Rukia had already walked off, talking about ways to market Chappy-carrot-mushroom cakes, "Did Uryu just try to console me?"

"I think so."

"I think he's finally lost it," said Ichigo, "All of that Quincy pride has gone to his head and destroyed his mind."

"Yes."

"Are you actually listening to me?" asked Ichigo.

"I think so."

Ichigo sighed, "You could have just said 'no'."

"Yes."

"C'mon, let's go before Miss blows up on us."

"I think so."

*

Ichigo had been completely innocent. He had been staring at the cars whizzing past. Nothing even vaguely suspicious about that but then _she, _no _it, _had appeared. Literally from nowhere, well, not quite _literally, _that would be impossible but the fact was that she must have been a ninja or something. There wasn't even the slightest suggestion that she was anywhere nearby when he blinked. Opening his eyes was something he regretted as he did it.

"Why's your face like that?" asked Kitty, five centimetres from his face.

It took several seconds for this to register in Ichigo's mind. Why is a mystery. If you think about it, Ichigo is always dealing with life-threatening fights in which split-second reactions are needed in order to not die. So how he managed to have these split-second reactions when he spent three seconds blinking just because someone's face was five centimetres from his own is and will remain one of those insolvable mysteries.

"ARGH!"

Ichigo's agility had never been a topic of question but to see him jump two metres in the air was definitely a feat worth remembering. Rukia had found it quite amusing, as had Orihime and –secretly – Chad. Uryu had pulled out a phone in just enough time to record Ichigo's supremely ungraceful landing and Aasa had just about restrained hysterical laughter. Alfie simply stared into the distance, as though mentally at war.

"WHAT THE HELL?" snapped Ichigo as he leapt to his feet from his awful landing.

"Someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" asked Kitty, purposely not translating it into Japanese.

"Uh?" asked Ichigo, unfamiliar with the meaning of something he had managed to identify as another of one of those ridiculously stupid English idioms.

"Why's your face like that?" asked Kitty, refusing to answer Ichigo's question, if you could call it that.

"Huh?" asked Ichigo first before his brain processed a second and more intelligent response, "What do you mean?"

"You're always frowning," said Kitty, "Did the wind blow at you or something?"

"Eh?" asked Ichigo, his left eyebrow raising ever so slightly out of its frown to give his face a somewhat confused expression. Looking around, Ichigo discovered that no one else seemed to know what she was going on about either. Though, that could have been because the others were all Japanese with a partial knowledge of the full extent of the English idioms.

"What on Earth are you blathering on about Kitty?" asked Alfie.

"Something my friend's mom told me once," said Kitty, leaning away from Ichigo's face to explain, "She said that if you made a horrible face, the wind would blow and your face would stay like that forever."

"And you seriously asked Ichigo if that was the case?" asked Alfie, "Please don't tell me you're that naïve."

"I'm not, it's just the only explanation I can think of for why someone would willingly frown all of the time. I mean," elaborated Kitty, "How is someone supposed to know if you're upset or angry if you frown all of the time anyway?" she turned to face Ichigo and pointed convictingly at him, "You need to go to Alton Towers*. That'll whack that frown right off your face."

"Alton Towers?" asked Chad.

"It's a theme park." explained Uryu, the source of all human knowledge.

"Doesn't sound like a bad idea." observed Rukia, mentally concocting ways to get Ichigo to break his frown. This mostly involved forcing him onto terrifying rides and spraying him with water pistols. It also involved throwing pink cats at him at some point but she had no idea where that idea had materialised from.

"What if I like frowning?" asked Ichigo.

"Do you get headaches?" asked Kitty.

"You can't respond to a question with a question!!" exclaimed Ichigo, leaping to his feet from his position on the picnic bench.

"Yes I can, I just did. See?" asked Kitty.

"Why can't you just talk like a normal human being?" asked Ichigo.

"Cuz I'm English."

"You can't use that as an excuse!"

"Who said it was an excuse?"

"ME!!"

"And what gives you the right to tell me what to do?"

"Rukia, slap me around the face now or I don't think I'll be able to resist the urge to kill her," said Ichigo turning to face Rukia who was simply smiling vindictively, "Please."

Rukia responded. However, instead of slapping, she kicked and instead of his face, she booted somewhere else. Ichigo immediately regretted opening his mouth and started biting his lip and restraining swear words as he hobbled off to regain his composure. Rukia was laughing whilst this was happening and Alfie remained still in his own deep world of conflict.

"So how are you?" asked Orihime.

"Meh," responded Kitty, "Alright I suppose. I'm a little confused and Pur… Gerech… my sword hasn't told me what's going on yet so I guess I'm stuck in the middle."

"Uh?"

"Never mind."

Alfie cocked his head towards his daughter. The message replayed over and over again in his head. He had forgotten where his loyalties lay. He knew that getting involved would be problematic but he had no idea it would get this bad. It was a matter of him or her and she was currently at the bottom of his priorities.

"Dad?" asked Kitty.

Alfie didn't look up. At least, he didn't look up until Kitty poked him fairly hard, in the arm. He then leapt to his feet and glared at his daughter who took a step backwards in surprise at the apparent ferocity of his aggression. She paused but seconds later, returned the glare. Aasa noticed the unusual behaviour first and stepped in between them, giving Alfie a look so filled with messages that no one else could quite understand what was going on.

"You _know _what would happen." stated Aasa simply.

Alfie averted his eyes and walked off, refusing to respond to Kitty no matter how many times she cried out his name. This predicament left a very suspicious group of teenagers and Soul Reapers and that is never a good combination. Especially not when an unpleasantly shaped green and white striped hat suddenly appeared from nowhere.

"Hello!"

"YOU?!" screamed everyone.

**A/N: Some notes:**

**Gerecht = Fair (as in righteous) **

**Einhorn = Unicorn (lit. one horn)**

***Alton Towers (in case you didn't know) is a theme park in Alton, England. It features rides such as Nemesis, Air and Oblivion.**

**Also, in case you haven't realised, I don't own Bleach. Just thought I'd mention that because everyone else does. **


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: Chapter Six, featuring special guest(s) and a little bit of an explanation which I'm sure will put a brief end to your many questions. In fact, so I wrap up the ending properly, any questions would be welcome- just so I don't leave any unanswered questions. It always annoys me when that happens.**

**Also, a special thank you to everyone who's reading this. I really appreciate it!**

Chapter Six

"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM!?!" screamed Ichigo, loud enough to attract the attention of the entire British Isles.

The blonde eyebrows fell into a confused and somewhat disappointed expression. Underneath the uncared for fringe of gold were two unreadable eyes, covered by a thick black shadow produced by the green and white striped hat. As if the man's clothing wasn't weird enough; he had to wear a ridiculous hat. Also, it was unheard of for such a 'young' looking man to walk about with a cane. He also gave new meaning to the word 'eccentric'.

"The airport," replied Urahara simply, "Where else?"

"Just when I thought you had had enough of causing problems for people in Japan," ranted Ichigo, "You arrive in England, smiling like a goof!"

"Are you okay, Kurosaki?" asked Urahara, "You're making up words again."

"I am NOT making up words!" shouted Ichigo.

"See?" asked Urahara turning to Kessei who nodded in aggreement, "Complete jibberish. He needs a doctor if you ask me."

"Where's Jinta and Ururu?" asked Orihime, trying to peek behind Urahara as though he were hiding them behind his back or something which, it being Urahara, wouldn't actually be all that surprising.

"Oh!" said Urahara, somehow bringing out a fan and fanning himself despite the autumnal British weather, "Airport security said that trying to bring a huge machine gun and bat was illegal. They had to stay in Japan. Besides, someone has to look after the shop."

"Shouldn't it be a responsible adult then?" asked Uryu, adjusting his glasses.

"Why didn't you leave Kessei?" asked Ichigo, "We all know that Jinta will just cause a disaster of some kind."

"I couldn't leave Kessei!" stated Urahara, shocked by the very idea, "Could I, Kessei?"

"No." stated Kessei simply.

"What are you doing here?" asked Rukia, an unreadable tone in her voice.

"Checkin' up on Kitty," said Urahara, "Primarily, I'm also here on holiday," shocked looks appeared on the faces of the young, "Can't a man take a holiday?"

"In England?" asked Aasa, "Why? I'd go to Spain given the chance."

"Cultural holiday," replied Urahara simply, "What was up with _him_ anyway?"

"Alfie?" asked Aasa, "Dunno."

"You're lying." stated Kitty simply.

Everyone besides Kitty and Aasa fell silent and watched them. They all had their own reasons, Urahara and Uryu's were mostly analytical; by analysing their behaviour and attitude, they could probably unveil something no one else would be able to see. Ichigo and the others watched as they didn't really want to jump into the argument themselves.

"How would you know?" asked Aasa.

"Gerechten Einhorn," replied Kitty, "She knows you're lying."

"Time out, time out," said Urahara, creating a 't' shape with his two hands, "Gerechten Einhorn? Who's that then?"

"The second name of her zanpak-tō." explained Aasa.

Urahara's eyes lit up uncontrollable. There was no way he would have been able to hide the shimmer of intense interest that glistened in his eyes in that very second. He had a thirst for knowledge and this was something he hadn't come across before. He'd heard of Yumikicha's situation: when a nickname was give to a zanpak-tō to hide its real name and abilities. However, this was something new. Something different. Only slightly different, but different nonetheless.

"Really?" asked Urahara, "Would you mind if I did a few tests?"

"Not really," said Kitty, "But my zanpak-tō might have something to say about that. She's in a crappy mood and, quite frankly, I don't think she'd wait for my permission to manifest and attack you. If you piss her off that is. She really is in a crappy mood."

"Ichigo will protect me!" stated Urahara.

Ichigo, who had been day-dreaming at the time, had no idea what he had just been dragged into and immediately blamed Urahara for the whole thing. He glared at him from a distance and was faintly aware of Rukia trying to persuade him to make up a will.

***

Kitty looked down nervously. She frowned in her distinctly, confused British way and then looked back up. The fact that she was the only English person in the room didn't bother her as much, neither did the fact that the Japanese around her were all quite capable of fighters. What did bother her was the chair. What did bother her was the lack of light. What _really _bothered her was the sudden appearance of five truckloads of strange, alien machinery that was now in the flat that she was living in for two weeks and paying a fair amount for the privilege of doing so.

She wasn't exactly happy about her body being in the room next door, her zanpak-tō lying in some strange machine, and Ichigo, Rukia and Urahara with their swords unsealed and at the ready. She couldn't see what all the fuss was about. Her sword had two names. Big whoop. So what? It can't be that rare or strange can it. Besides, if zanpak-tō are a part of someone's soul (as Aasa had once told her) wouldn't that mean that each one is different, each one is weird and unique in its own way? She sighed.

The ropes tying her to the chair definitely seemed unnecessary. As did the wires and tiny monitors sitting on her skin. She had also disapproved of Urahara's occasional murmurs and hmmms of interest and/or concern. She sighed again, thankful that the ropes allowed her that much. Every movement she made was watched with an unhealthy scrutiny. What threat could she pose when she was tied down to a chair with her sword three feet away from her?

"Interesting…" whispered Urahara under his breath for the umpteenth time, "Odd."

"I am here you know." stated Kitty with a look that probably could kill.

"No duh." replied Ichigo.

Kitty found her left eye twitching rather of its own accord and restrained a sudden outburst of frustration that engulfed her heart. She glowered at Urahara who was reading some print offs. She turned her head and looked to her sword. It was trapped in a watery cage of purplish goo. It looked so lonely, so sad and so angry. It looked positively furious that it had been separated from Kitty, as Kitty herself felt.

"How much longer?" asked Orihime, noticing Kitty's rising anger.

"Three minutes, five max." replied Urahara, "The analysis though, that's another matter. By the way, Kitty, you have an irregular heart beat. Might want to see a doctor about that."

"Couldn't that just be the stress that _you're _causing me?" snapped Kitty.

"…" paused Urahara, "I hadn't thought of that. Never mind."

Kitty sighed again. Twenty seconds had passed since Urahara had said three minutes until she could be reunited with her zanpak-tō. Three minutes. Felt more like three hours to Kitty. How could a minute feel like an hour? How could anything take so long? How could anything take so long when your insides are burning with panic and frustration? She had never been separated from her sword for so long and it was scaring her slightly. It was scaring the sword even more.

_Kitty? _asked Purlicorne/Gerechten Einhorn.

_Yup? _asked Kitty mentally, trying to hide her own fear and mentally slipping from consciousness to a state of semi-consciousness as she stepped into her inner world. She smiled upon her arrival, it was so pretty. It was a forest. The forest floor was bathed in dappled moonlight and a tiny stream could be heard trickling through the forest. Kitty loved her inner world.

_I don't like that man._ stated the unicorn standing before her with its warm golden eyes.

_It'll be over soon. _stated Kitty, _Promise._

"KITTY!"

Ripped from her inner world, her eyes snapped open. The group was around her, untying her from the chair. They seemed surprised by her awakening. She frowned and stared at them. She smiled when the familiar sword was placed in her hands and she fell asleep in the chair, hugging the sword to her chest despite the apparent danger that brought with it.

***

"She's a sleeper." observed Chad.

Aasa stifled laughs, "You should have seen her when she was training with Urahara. Fell asleep every other hour. She'd be fine and then suddenly collapse in a heap and start napping."

"Her stamina sucks." stated Ichigo.

"Yup." agreed Aasa, "She's not a fighter, that's for sure. I dread think what would happen if she ever got into a proper fight with another Soul Reaper. I don't think she'd last and I wonder if any of them would spare her."

"Most of them would." said Rukia.

Uryu was silent for quite obvious reasons. They had all been quite surprised by how quickly Kitty had fallen asleep after being reunited with her sword. Urahara had explained that it was usually a shock to lose your zanpak-tō for any length of time without your full consent, certainly, he had claimed, for someone so new to their weapon, it would be an intensely terrifying experience.

At this point, Aasa had to be restrained from calling the police on the basis that Urahara was mentally abusing a child. It was Uryu who pointed out that because Kitty is sixteen, she wouldn't cause quite as much concern for the police who have far more pressing matters to attend to in a capital city. Aasa had reluctantly placed the phone down and returned to his seat, watching Kitty (who was sleeping on the floor) like an overprotective mother eagle.

"Found anything?" asked Ichigo.

"Nothing of concern," replied Urahara, "No. It's natural. Her personality in itself is almost two completely different parts so her zanpak-tō mirrored that. One side of her zanpak-tō, Purlicorne, is entirely pacifistic and healing whereas the other, Gerechten Einhorn, cares only about inflicting punishment on those who have done wrong. It's quite a contrast."

"Why do her eyes go gold?" asked Orihime.

"I'd say it's likely that her zanpak-tō's manifestation has golden eyes. At a rough guess, I'd suggest that her zanpak-tō takes control of one of her eyes to help her in fights," pondered Urahara, "It's highly likely that in her bankai form, if she ever reaches it, both her eyes will turn gold and that her sight will be entirely controlled by her zanpak-tō."

"That seems counter-productive." said Uryu.

"Not if you think about Kitty, she doesn't like hurting things. It would probably be more beneficial to her if she couldn't see that she was hurting something." explained Aasa.

"So," said Urahara, unable to contain himself any longer, "What was all that business with that man earlier?"

All eyes fell on Aasa who blushed, showing his guilt.

**A/N: I dread think how many names I spelt wrong in this. Please ignore them if they're wrong and please do tell me which ones I spelt wrong because that would be greatly appreciated!**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: Bit more German in this so the translation, for your easy reading, is placed in brackets, in bold beside the German. Thanks to xXxShinigamixXx for the corrections!! **

**Also, it's Gerechtes Einhorn not Gerechten. That's me getting my cases mixed up. Instead of going back and changing each chapter, I'll just do it right from now on. Apologies for the mistake!!**

**Thanks again for reading!!**

Chapter Seven

"So," began Urahara, "What exactly is going on?"

"He was acting strangely." observed Orihime.

"He wasn't acting like much of a father, if you ask me." added Ichigo.

"Oh like you can talk!" exclaimed Rukia, "Your father _attacks _you in the morning. At least Kitty's dad makes an effort not to attack her."

"It's the attacking thing that's the main concern here." stated Uryu.

"What sort of father would confront his own daughter, the way he did?" asked Chad.

"Well?" asked Urahara, "There's a lot of questions here that need answering. What's it gonna be Aasa?"

"We're in Squad Twelve," replied Aasa, "It's as simple and straightforward as that."

"I fail to see how that's a proper answer." stated Uryu.

"You've met him! How can you say that's not a proper answer? He's a psychopath! Alfie let slip about Kitty and what do you think his next orders were?" Aasa laughed slightly, "They weren't to make her a cup of tea I can tell you that much."

"Why?" asked Ichigo, "I don't understand."

"Well, that's not surprising." observed Uryu with a carefully hidden smile on his smug, victorious face as he adjusted his glasses which for some reason always required adjusting.

"What was that, Ishida?" hissed Ichigo threateningly, putting on his 'psychopathic' face on, "You suggesting something?"

"You're an idiot, Ichigo." replied Uryu.

Ichigo leapt to his feet, as did Uryu. Admittedly, Uryu did it with a little less frustration in his stride but that was just the way he was; his naturally calm demeanour refused to be broken in confrontation. Well, unless it was with Ichigo. Well, unless it had gone on for a while with Ichigo. The two were about to consider fighting when a frustrated, half-asleep, pyjama-wearing Kitty sat down in between them and simply glared at them.

"ARGH!" screamed Ichigo, not noticing her until he nearly trod on her, "When did you get here?"

"I'm living here," said Kitty, "Temporarily. I have every right to be here. Now shut up. I have a headache."

Ichigo begrudgingly sat down and continued glaring at Uryu from his seat. Uryu simply restrained the urge to torment him by making silly faces. Uryu had to restrain that urge to protect his reputation. Also to protect his pride but whenever he brought that up in conversation, Ichigo leapt in and started ranting, poking fun and generally laughing in the face of his so-called 'Quincy Pride '.

Conversation fell silent. The entirely Japanese populated room thought Kitty's entrance to be quite unexpected and inconsiderate, they were, after all, talking about her. She can't be in the room when she's being talked about; it's just silly. Thus, no one spoke. They felt as though they couldn't continue talking about her father in front of her in case they said something derogatory and insulted him, therefore upsetting her.

However, they misjudged, Kitty was just as suspicious as them, if not more. With Gerechtes Einhorn telling her who is behaving waywardly and who isn't, it became within her nature quite quickly to be sceptical of anyone receiving a thumbs down from her zanpak-tō. She sat in the middle of the floor, legs crossed and waited for the conversation to start up. When it didn't, she took matters into her own hands.

"Why did dad look at me the way he did?" asked Kitty, "He looked at me as though I were an enemy. There's something going on isn't there? I would just like to point out that you lot," she pointed her fingers at the teenagers, "Are actually a year younger than me. I have every right to know what my dumbass dad is up to."

"He got orders from his clinically insane captain." said Ichigo.

"I hope you realise that there's no such thing as 'clinically insane'," informed Uryu, "According to the psychiatrists, there is no such thing as 'insane'."

"The psychiatrists haven't met Kurotsuchi." observed Rukia.

A consensus of hums and nods settled in the room. No one could disagree with that point. Even members of his own Squad were terrified of him. They were all, also, quite convinced that he was mad or sadistic on an unhealthy level. They certainly all felt sorry for his second-in-command Nemu. She totally didn't deserve her fate, as Uryu had once observed.

"Let me guess," said Kitty, "They want to take me in?"

"Yeah." said Aasa.

"Then why shouldn't I go?" asked Kitty.

Stunned silence flattened the room's conversation. Even Urahara, whose eyes were hidden under the veil from his hat, was surprised by Kitty's naïveté. She sat on the floor and turned ever so slightly silent. She hated it. She hated being treated like the youngest when she was in fact sixteen! That made her responsible enough to be told things and to take matters into her own hands. Ichigo and his friends were doing the same thing and they were a year younger than her!

"Are you mad?" asked Aasa, getting out of his seat to kneel in front of Kitty, "He'll do… things. He's not right in the head."

"Yeah, and nor am I," spat Kitty, "What's ya point?"

"He's not a good man," said Uryu, "He injured and poisoned his own lieutenant."

"Given half the chance he'd probably like to dissect most of the people in this room," said Urahara, "He's never been a sane man. It would not be safe for anyone in this room, except maybe Aasa, myself and Rukia, to go anywhere near him. Certainly, you, Ichigo, Uryu, Chad and Orihime should never even think about going near him."

"And that's coming from the man who thought it was okay for me to go up against captains with only a little bit or training a couple of weeks after becoming a Soul Reaper." said Ichigo.

"That's not true!!" said Urahara, leaping to his own defence… because no one else would.

"That's not what Gerechtes Einhorn is saying," stated Kitty, "She's calling you a big fat liar. Well, not in those exact words. Insert swear words where normal words are and that's what she's actually saying. But, you get the picture."

"Your zanpak-tō doesn't seem very polite." said Chad.

"That's only when she's Gerechtes Einhorn," explained Kitty, "When she's Purlicorne, all she wants to do is give everyone flowers. She couldn't care less if they were holding a sword to my throat."

"Weren't joking about that contrast were you?" asked Rukia.

"Nope." said Urahara, shaking his head.

"Anyway, what're we going to do?" asked Ichigo, "About Kitty's dad?"

"Leave him," said Kitty, getting up and leaving the room, "He'll see reason eventually."

Aasa leapt up to his feet, furious at Kitty's devil may care attitude. He strode over to her and blocked the doorway she was headed towards. She frowned at him but relaxed and folded her arms. He glared at her and then explained his actions, "He is a seated officer. Hollows are not seated officers. What makes you think you can stand up to him?"

"He's my dad." said Kitty, pushing past Aasa and locking herself in the bathroom.

"What a handful." sighed Aasa.

"I HEARD THAT!" screamed Kitty from inside the bathroom.

"You guys better be getting back to your class. We'll meet up with you, same time, same place tomorrow." said Aasa to Ichigo and co. who promptly left and returned to their hotel only for Keigo to be greeted by Ichigo's biceps. Urahara and Kessei took up their offer of a room for the week i.e. Aasa's room. Kitty was not pleased with the level of snoring that night.

***

Rukia tapped her finger against her lips. Something didn't fit. Life, naturally, didn't give all of the answers all of the time but there was something quite off about the whole matter. Rukia, after all, had seen Kitty pay for all of the food and there was still some food missing. Something had gone wrong somewhere and naturally, everyone's fingers were pointing at Urahara. He just had that look. That evil, mysterious and generally conspiring look.

"Can't you tell?!" demanded Ichigo, slamming his fist against the blanket which coated the grass of Hyde Park in London, "I thought Gerechtes Einhorn would have some sort of opinion about this!"

"She would," replied Kitty, "If she was Gerechtes Einhorn. Which she's not. She's Purlicorne at the moment."

"What is it with the English and vanishing just when you need them?" asked Aasa.

"We have better things to do." retorted Kitty, defending England.

"Like?" poked Aasa.

"…" Kitty shifted her eyes, "Make tea?"

"Thought so." observed Uryu, as though he knew exactly what was going on.

"This isn't helping." stated Chad.

"Oh, whatever," spat Kitty who stood up suddenly and moved away to sit on her own, "Have fun!"

"What's up with her?" asked Ichigo.

"She-" began Aasa.

"I DIDN'T GET ANY SLEEP!!!" roared Kitty. She leapt to her feet and pointed accusingly at Urahara, Aasa and Kessei, "THEY SNORED!!! REALLY LOUD!!! ALL NIGHT LONG!"

"Oh it wasn't that bad." said Urahara, once again retrieving a fan for no apparent reason.

"SAYS YOU!" screamed Kitty.

"Do you really have to shout?" asked Orihime, covering her ears.

"Yeah," said Ichigo, "You're attracting the locals."

"Sehr lustig **(very funny)**," snapped the approaching man in German.

Kitty span on her heels and glared aggressively at her father who had no doubt tracked her by her outrageously loud voice. Frankly, Kitty was more concerned that it was Duncan telling her that she had no right to take a day off during work experience on the basis that she had a cold. She was on a break at the moment, that's how she was getting away with it. She was terrified that he might ring her head teacher and tell him how she kept randomly blacking out in his office and vanishing onto the four winds.

"You." spat most of the group, leaping to their feet, ready to take down the man they believed to be a possible threat. What Uryu failed to understand was why, wherever they went, whoever they met, they always ended up entangling themselves in matters that didn't really concern them. They got too involved, involved on a personal level. Then again, Uryu observed, was that just the nature of teenagers? The need to put the world to rights, to stand up for the underdog? Uryu sighed and subconsciously prepared for battle.

"I can handle him," said Kitty, brushing them aside slightly as she confronted her father with only a foot of coloured blanket separating them, "Lass mich in Ruhe** (leave me alone)**."

"Nein **(no)**," replied Alfie, a darkness in his eyes that could never be healthy, "Niemals **(never)**."

"Warum nicht? **(why not?)**" asked Kitty, "Vorher hattest du kein Problem** (you didn't have a problem before)**."

"Can you at least speak in English?" shouted Ichigo in Japanese, "At _least_. I can't understand a word either of you are saying!"

"That's the point." stated Kitty in Japanese before ignoring him and returning to their conversation in German, "Geh **(go)**. Geh weg von hier **(get away from here)**. Geh weg von mir **(get away from me)**. Jetzt! **(now!)**"

"Ich gehe nicht **(I'm not leaving)**," began Alfie, a dark tone, readable by all, "Ohne dich **(without you)**."

Then it happened. Fast as lightning. Despite their combined strength, combined experience, combined abilities, despite the two bankai users, despite the five Soul Reapers and ex-Soul Reapers, despite the Quincy and despite the two super-powered humans; their reactions remained too slow. They were not ready for what happened. It was too unexpected and fast. They had to hand it to Alfie, he may not be strong or clever but he was damned fast. Too fast for a member of Squad Twelve really, he should have been in Squad Two.

Alfie unsheathed his sword. He opened up a pathway. He lobbed a gikongai into Kitty's mouth. He grabbed Kitty by the collar. He threw her into the pathway. He leapt in himself. The doors slammed shut with an echoing and deafening slam. Kitty's possessed body picked itself up and declared that it was needed at its work experience placement. The group fell silent. What had just happened? They realised it and cursed themselves.

"Kitty's gone!" shouted Aasa, "It's all my fault!"

"That's Ichigo's line." stated Rukia.

"HEY!"

**A/N: Next chapter: Soul Society, probably. **


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thanks again to everyone who is reading, reviewing and correcting! A special thanks again to xXxShinigamixXx for helping me correct my German, I re-uploaded the last chapter with corrections to the German, so if you're curious, you might want to read it again!! Anyways:**

Chapter Eight

Kitty brought her arms out just in time. Her wrists sustained most of the blow. Alfie had a lot more strength than he had appeared to have. Once through the Senkaimon, Kitty had been thrown to the floor. It had taken all of her pitiful reaction time just to get her arms out in time to stop her slamming her face into the pale, dusty floor. She coughed as the dust lifted upon her disturbance of it. She coughed again and overheard voices. She looked up, the beautiful, glimmering moonlight being overshadowed by a hideous black shadow she was unable to identify.

Kitty lurched her eyes back to the ground, coughing and spluttering. She caught, as she averted her eyes, a glimpse of a flimsy white material patterned with black circles floating on what little breeze the night could produce under the watchful gaze of the lunar disc. She lowered her head, for a moment forgetting the significance of such a pure garment. Her mind was focused solely on removing the pale dust from her lungs. It was only when her mind had achieved this that she looked up once again, her eyes glistening with a sudden and fearful knowledge of who stood before her.

"Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi," whispered Kitty, too scared to annunciate the words further for fear of them somehow resulting in her swift and untimely death. Instead, the creature of darkness curled its insidious lips into a sick and twisted smile as though finding amusement in the creature kneeling before it. Responding fearfully to this smile, Kitty found herself repeating what she had already observed, "You're Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi."

The God of Darkness frowned. Was the creature stupid? It had been intelligent to assess his identity at first glance but to repeat the name? It was either a very dim-witted animal, as he predicted, or it was scared out of its wits. Both of his theories offered very viable answers to a very irrelevant question. What mattered most was getting the thing to his lab and discovering what it is that allowed that particular soul to have a zanpak-tō with two different names and two, quite unique abilities.

"As you requested, Captain Kurotsuchi," began Alfie emotionlessly but desperately seeking praise from his ever-so-slightly-sociopathic Captain, "The Soul Reaper with a double-named zanpak-tō."

"This thing is your daughter," replied the Captain, taking a step towards the creature on the floor who looked up fearfully, as it should, "Correct?"

"Yes," replied Alfie before quickly adding, "Captain."

"Then you must understand that I'll have to examine you after your daughter?" asked Kurotsuchi, slamming his right foot into the left hand of the young girl who cried out in pain. Kurotsuchi hummed a silent approval to himself, as though sadistically treading on someone's hand brought about some god-like revelation that only he could ever truly comprehend, "For obvious reasons."

"Of course," replied Alfie, "Captain."

"Very well, leave us," said Kurotsuchi. Alfie complied, walking away as his daughter held her hand and comforted it. Kurotsuchi sighed loudly, as though comforting pain were a weak and stupid act of self-pity, which in his personal opinion, it was. He looked over his left shoulder and called out to his equally stupid lieutenant, "Nemu!"

Nemu hobbled over, limping slightly over to her left side, an unfortunate side effect of her father's latest experiments. Kurotsuchi didn't describe to Nemu what had to be done, it was clear as day what had to be done. He simply motioned that she should do it faster and became increasingly frustrated at her slow movements. Nemu knocked out the young girl, who fell limp in her arms with incredible speed, and carried her back to the barracks.

Nemu would have felt some semblance of pity for the young girl. It kept whispering out names that Nemu could not recognise. They were not the names of any Soul Reaper she knew and neither were they very important. She wanted to feel sorry for the terrified creature, whose pulse she could feel battering the ribs that held it, but she couldn't; that particular envy had been removed from her as had many other emotions. Still, as her Captain listed the many wondrous methods he would use to uncover her secret, she couldn't help but ignore him, ever so slightly, and listen to the silent rantings of an unconscious human.

"Mom… brother… Aasa… Purlicorne…." the mutterings paused and so did Nemu, just for a second, as a name she recognised from her Captain's frustrated rants slipped out from the young girl's mouth, "Ichigo…"

***

"Now that we've managed to shut up Aasa," said Urahara, waving a hand in the general direction of a severely distressed Aasa. Aasa was distressed for several reasons, the first being his concerns for Kitty. The second of his several reasons was the fact that he was tied down to the chair with rope. The third reason was that he had been duck-taped; he could no longer speak above a mumbled mumble of incomprehensible despair, "We need to come up with a plan."

"Mmmm! Mmmm mmmm mmmmmmm!" mumbled Aasa who was making no sense to the none-Mumblish speakers.

"Anyway, as I was saying," continued Urahara, "We need to come up with a plan."

"You get us into Soul Society, we storm into the barracks of the psychopathic captain, we grab Kitty, we leave," declared Ichigo naively, "I can't see what's so complicated about that."

This received a slap around the back of the head from Rukia. She was quite annoyed that he thought he could get away with that without getting _herself _into severe trouble. Besides, whilst Ichigo might be quite capable of doing so, Kurotsuchi had the leverage and many seemed to be forgetting that he _was _a Captain. He was hardly a defenceless kitten trying to defend a lollipop with which it had no interest. Kurotsuchi could be no further from that description.

"Remember what happened the last time you did that?" asked Rukia.

"Yeah," said Ichigo, "And it worked."

There was a long pause. No one could really disagree. It had worked. It hadn't, necessarily, worked out the way they had wanted it to but it _had_, undeniably, worked. Rukia had been saved and Ichigo had successfully managed to avoid being slaughtered by two captains. His friends had also managed to make a severe dent in the number of operating Soul Reapers and had survived through the ordeal as well. There wasn't really a case against Ichigo's point. It had been a success. Albeit it a messy one.

"This is different," said Uryu, "This time, Kurotsuchi will be ready for us."

"Not quite, Uryu," said Ichigo, "He'll be ready for _you_."

"He's the Head of Research and Development," said Uryu, "_Research._"

"He'll have collected data on each of our abilities." observed Chad, somehow successfully translating the many incomprehensible words that seem to flow freely from Uryu's mouth.

"Your point?" asked Ichigo.

"The point is, Ichigo," explained Urahara, "You're going to need a lot more than brute strength to get Kitty back. You're going to need to be clever. Very clever."

"Urahara-level clever." observed the mostly silent Tessei, who had, as he tends to, faded into the background of the events occurring around the louder, more boisterous group.

There was a silence as the group pondered the terrifying prospect of having to be Urahara-level clever. For, none of them could deny, Urahara was an extremely clever man. An extremely clever _annoying _man, but extremely clever nonetheless. Whilst Uryu and Ichigo would never have admitted it, the concept of having to match Urahara's level of intelligence was a task neither were sure they could manage. Orihime's eyes lit up suddenly like gems as a sudden revelation whacked her in the face. She leapt to her feet like a charismatic leader. She launched her hand into the air as though this were dramatic and declared at the top of her voice,

"We must be like ninjas!"

The pause was understandable and expected. In fact, the reply came slightly sooner than anyone had expected, from an equally unexpected source. The Germanic voice replied, "You'll need to be better than ninjas. Far better."

***

The pitter-patter of delicate rain against the mossy, overgrown and lush undergrowth of the forest echoed around the mostly silent world. The leaves occasionally emitted noise as they danced about in the icy breeze, swishing and swooshing against the quiet howl as it brushed past their intensely green selves. The singular stream running through the forlorn forest, whispered melodically as it dampened the salty, dry rocks that lay in its way.

Four quick, consecutive thumps broke the silence, creating streams of noisy wind as they moved and preventing the delicate fall of the freezing rain. The clatter of sound stopped abruptly, halting before a silently breathing creature who lay in the grass, chest barely rising. The creature stirred and pulled itself to feet in a most ungraceful method, but the noise-bringer before it seemed pleased just to see it move.

"Kitty?" asked Purlicorne/Gerechtes Einhorn.

Kitty blinked, as though awaking from a pleasant dream. She stretched, as she normally did. She yawned, as she had so often done before. She smiled, as she always did upon seeing her secret guardian. Kitty hugged the unicorn's thick, warm neck and seemed able to ignore the rain as it gradually turned to snowflakes of icy sapphire. Kitty smiled again and pulled away, awaiting a less stupid question.

"Are you alright?" asked Purlicorne, breaking away for a second from her slightly more violent and righteous persona.

"Yeah… wait…" Kitty broke off, remembering what had happened, "Crap."

"You're so foolish," snapped Gerechtes Einhorn, "I knew that man was evil."

"He's not evil," replied Kitty, "He's stupid."

"Misled." corrected Purlicorne, eyes closed and forming a perfect semicircle.

"Why am I here?" asked Kitty.

"You've been caught by a monster." stated Gerechtes Einhorn.

"Mayuri Kurotsuchi?" asked Kitty, "He can't be that bad."

"Of course not," said Purlicorne, "But it's wise to be cautious."

"Yeah, I know," replied Kitty, "How am I gonna get out of this mess?"

"If the worst comes to the worst," responded Gerechtes Einhorn, "I can turn you into a greater monster. A monster that will have no trouble ripping _him_ to shreds."

"I don't want to be a monster."

"Don't worry," observed Purlicorne sternly, "I won't let you."

"What makes you think you have any say in the matter?" asked Gerechtes Einhorn.

"I should imagine she favours me over you."

"I fail to see how that would make a difference," spat Gerechtes Einhorn, "We inhabit the same body."

"Unfortunately."

"Care to repeat that? I do believe it was an unjust statement without proper judgement and evidence to back it up."

"I know my heart. I can't deny it to please your ego."

"Were we not inhabiting the same body, I would take you down right now."

Kitty rolled her eyes. This was the second time she'd spoken to both of them at the same time and it was the second time that she had received that very same reaction. She sighed, her breath melting a flurry of snowflakes as they fell. The two could only agree on one thing, and that was being overprotective. They couldn't agree on how to do it or even the reason why. The thought that they were parts of her soul did not make her feel any better.

"So you're essentially agreeing that if I were to attack you, I would technically be self-harming?" asked Gerechtes Einhorn.

"I only agree with your logic." replied Purlicorne.

"So I have the superior mind?" asked Gerechtes Einhorn.

"No. Certainly not."

"Can you two stop bitching about each other?" snapped Kitty, "JEEZ! I thought this was supposed to be about me!!"

"You have my apologies," said Purlicorne, "We did not intend to offend you."

"That's very considerate of you," replied Kitty, "Any suggestions?"

Fog formed. Fast as any form of spoken word, the fog began to swirl around Kitty. It latched onto her limbs and began pulling her into the deeper, darker area of the fog where maniacal laughter could be heard echoing around a large room. Kitty seemed worried, she didn't want to go back. She didn't want to face that mad man. She stared at them, panic filling her eyes.

"The nightmare's just begun." stated Gerechtes Einhorn.

"A hero's going to save you," said Purlicorne, "Just in time."

With that, Kitty was gone. Purlicorne/Gerechtes Einhorn walked away, left to hear the thunder that was waiting to roll. They were left to see the flashes of lightning as they shot across the sky, carrying inside them painful reflected images of what Kitty's own eyes observed. The unicorn sighed and slammed the ground with its three tails. They didn't want to have to wait to help her but they could not help any sooner than that.

"Will she be ready," asked Gerechtes Einhorn, "When the time comes?"

"I doubt it," said Purlicorne, "We just have to have faith that her new friends can rescue her before we have to resort to that particular action."

"Indeed."

***

"You know the plan?" asked Urahara.

The group nodded.

"Why isn't he coming?" asked Uryu, pointing to the still tied up and masking-taped up Aasa.

"Health hazard." replied Urahara.

"I'm sure he's not that bad at fighting." said Ichigo.

"Oh no, not to himself. To you lot. He'd end up getting the lot of you into danger."

The group was bemused but nodded nonetheless. They walked through the gate. Unbeknownst to Urahara, Aasa was an unusually escape artist. The ropes came loose, Aasa's unseen Soul Reaper form emerged from his gigai and he leapt into the closing Senkaimon. Urahara frowned and turned to Tessei.

"That's not going to turn out well."

Tessei agreed. It wouldn't.

**A/N: You may have noticed it was uploaded a day early. That's because I'm one of a lucky selection of people going to see Eddie Izzard at the NIA. Being as everyone's so nice, I figured I'd upload a day early instead of a day late. Thank again for reading.**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: Are people still reading this? It's hard to tell. A one word review would be nice. Just one word. For example, 'Good' or 'Bad' or 'Admirable'. Just something so that I can know if people still read this.**

**Also, sorry for the late update.**

**Ta. Thanks if you **_**are **_**reading by the way. It's just that I haven't had any reviews. So, understandably, I'm getting a little worried that no one's reading it.**

Chapter Nine

Rukia was the first through the gate, followed by Uryu, Orihime and Chad. Ichigo was bringing up the rear because Rukia had a Hell Butterfly, and, apparently, that meant that she needed to go at the front. This aggravated Ichigo. He didn't know why but suspected that it had something to do with Uryu's occasional glares of self-righteousness that passed his way every other step. Uryu, of course, was rather happy with the arrangement.

Upon entering Soul Society, they were 'greeted' by three Captains and an unnecessarily large number of Soi Fon's ninja squad - as they had so been called by Urahara who was not exactly her favourite person anyway. Two Captains were a pleasant sight, the third, who was glowering threateningly, looked as though she were about to pounce on all five of them. In fact, she wasn't. She was going to pounce on the unfortunate sixth soul who was not quite as adept a ninja as he was an escape artist.

Sword to throat, Aasa raised his arms. Soi Fon was unimpressed with his inability to block her speed. Aasa was, frankly, terrified. He had heard enough stories about his own psychopathic Captain, but rumour had it that Soi Fon had tried to kill almost everyone in the Sereitei at some point or another. These rumours were, of course, hyperbole and so should have been ignored. Either way though, the thin cold blade hovering centimetres from Aasa's arteries did little to reassure him.

"How the hell did you get here?!" asked Ichigo, pointing at Aasa accusingly.

"I'm a very good escape artist." observed Aasa doing his best to smile – and failing – with a sword intently waiting to draw his blood, sitting at the base of his Adam's apple.

"Not impressive," said Uryu, "It would have taken any _intelligent _person less than a minute to get out of such a hackneyed confinement."

"Hackneyed confinement?" asked Orihime.

"Same-y trap." explained Chad.

Whilst this conversation had been occurring, Rukia had run over to her Captain and his friend and saluted. She had then been told – for the umpteenth time - that she didn't need to do that and had quickly apologised more than was necessary. Captain Ukitake was having one of his better days and it showed. His face was more alive and bright than it had been in times past and his white hair seemed to take on a moon-like shimmer. Captain Kyouraku gave the delicate Rukia a hearty slap on the back. Her entire frame seemed to shake from the impact.

"So how've you been?" asked Kyouraku.

"Good." replied Rukia, still not entirely used to the idea of speaking to Captains as though they were normal human beings – partly because they _weren't _though Ichigo had told her that that wasn't really an excuse and that she should take a leaf out of his book.

"We heard about what happened," said Ukitake, "They're going to detain Aasa until Captain Kurotsuchi releases the Soul Reaper."

"We have to wait until she's released?" asked Rukia.

"Unfortunately," replied Kyouraku, "Yes."

"There are all sorts of special injunctions preventing us from interfering with his research," informed Ukitake, "We can only enter the building if there is significant danger to either his division or the Sereitei in general. It's a pain."

"… Is there anything we can do?" asked Rukia over the increasing hubbub of noise behind her.

"Well," said Kyouraku, "You didn't hear this from me but there is a dangerous, unfamiliar increase in spiritual pressure over there and it's not getting smaller, it's getting bigger."

Rukia nodded, ignoring the cacophony of noise behind her.

***

Kitty heard once again: the occasional bleeping of a machine registering her heartbeat, the consistent and annoying hum of complicated scientific paraphernalia and the distinct and irrevocably fear-inducing tapping of a certain foot. Smell arrived next; the detestable smell or chlorine and all things clinical and clean, whilst having the sweetly disgusting scent of dank and damp in the peripheries. Then came taste; iron, metal, blood in the mouth. Next was touch, pain smouldered in limbs whose names escaped her at the time. Then sight; her eyes rising to meet the impatient orbs of a heinously sadistic god. Such was the ritual of waking up from unconsciousness.

"Again!" exclaimed Captain Kurotsuchi. He waltzed over to Kitty, strapped to a chair that resembled all too closely an electric chair, and slapped her, "Infantile child!"

Kitty took the blow but it made her very angry. Angrier than she'd ever been. Angrier than Gerechtes Einhorn had ever been and Gerechtes Einhorn was just about ready to erupt. It felt as though lava were her blood and as though her every nerve ending were crackling like lightning. Kitty, at this point, had gone through enough of Mayuri's insanely painful treatments for her body to begin to get used to them. The lava in her blood was an injection of 'just-enough-poison-to-not-kill-her' and the electrified nerve endings were 'just-enough-exposure-to-pain-to-not-kill-her'. Though, Kitty had far exceeded the stage where she was able to distinguish pain from anger. She had also learned very quickly that it was an incredibly stupid idea to back-chat the madman.

"I suggest you do not fall unconscious again!" shouted Mayuri, "Or else I might just have to stop being so generous!"

_Generous? _snapped Gerechtes Einhorn, _Is that what the madman calls it? If you don't get yourself out of this mess, Kitty, so help me, I'll kill him._

_He's a Captain, Gerechtes Einhorn, _stated Purlicorne, _There is no way you can stand up to him._

_Wait and watch._

"Nemu!" screamed the psychopathic captain, whose voice strained into a high-pitched squeal from the sheer effort of maintaining his emotions. Nemu ran over to him, keeping a fair distance between them whilst being close enough for him to not care. He glared at her but then continued, driven by curiosity to uncover hidden secrets, "Fetch it."

Nemu paused. There were several 'its' in Squad Eleven's quarters. Not only was the term used to describe equipment and objects, it was also used to describe people. From the context she could assume it was a piece of equipment but of the many millions of pieces of diabolical machinery in the building, it was impossible to deduce which of the many tortuous things it could be. She frowned slightly, as much as was physically possible for her to do so and hazarded the risk of a question, "My apologies, which 'it', Captain?"

It wasn't hard to work out what happened next. A lightning fast strike sent her flying into the pipe-ridden wall whose contents seemed to drip through and infect the wall with its greenish, dampish tinge. Nemu, not even noticing the pain, stood up and awaited to be attacked by the verbal onslaught that was yet to come. What was happening to her was terribly unjust but she didn't mind, or even care. What consequence was it to anyone else, how a father treated their child?

"The newly created device. The one on my desk! Go!" shouted Mayuri, "Quickly, quickly you maggot-infested fool!"

Nemu left swiftly. Kitty had, as would have been expected, watched the event unfold and it was not aiding her in controlling her less pacifistic side, who was on the verges of breaking the very delicate cage that held it in place. Kitty pulled against the straps holding her down and was met by a fist to the face for her insolent attempts at doing so. She gritted her teeth and found herself growling. Mayuri pulled away and stared at her as though he were analysing the formula of a poison.

"Interesting," stated Mayuri, "Are you growling because you're in pain? That's an unusual reaction. It must have something to do with-"

"IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE A BASTARD!" screamed Kitty. A punch immediately responded. Kitty flinched and kept her eyes closed, the hit came as more of a surprise than it should have been. She shifted uncomfortably and opened her eyes. Her eyes widened. How long had she had her eyes closed? Where had that _thing _come from? Why was he putting it on her head? And, most importantly, where the hell was the Calvary?

***

They were waiting outside. They could not act unless there was something happening. All they could do was patiently sit and watch. They had to sit over a mile away and were not permitted onto the roof. They were not given backup for they did not need it. They were not given commands because they were not required. Yet, they were not trusted to go in before such a time as it was allowed. They had to wait. All they could do was wait.

Nothing happened for a long time. There were no noises. That was peculiar, there should have been some noise, yet there was none; even their breathing was silent. There was no wind, nothing to interrupt the pure nothingness that forced the group into such perfect stillness. There was no wind to blow against their clothing, their hearts beating in their chests did not seem to move them and the silence was agonising. They could do nothing to break it.

Ichigo wanted to turn to Rukia for some encouragement or reassurance, just as the rest of the group desired to turn to him, but there was a consensus now. No one could move. No one was permitted to move. No one was allowed to move. Unless something happened. Only when some great event destroyed the silence, the stillness, the nothingness, could they interfere. They wanted to look to the sky, each finding some great metaphor in the situation but they could not interfere. All they could do was sit and wait.

***

Flash. _It is a forest; dark in the shadows of the leaves and trees but lighter in the embrace of the dappled sunlight that peers through the tiny holes which the leaves cannot keep hidden. The river trickles quietly but cascades loudly and powerfully as it falls from somewhere high in the sky; it flows through the forest, it's lifeblood. A unicorn, powerful and proud, delicate and modest, stands in the centre of the forest. _Flash. _**The forest shakes. Trees fell. Light vanished. The river changed. A corrupted colour of poisonous blood engulfed the stream, taking hold of the entire forest. The lush green grass turned black, shrivelled and died. The trees rotted and became one with the soil. The river killed all that it touched. The sky turned red as fire, bleeding rain of black. Gerechtes Einhorn was furious. **_Flash.

Screaming was not uncommon within the Division. It was almost eerie if there was no screaming. Something was terribly wrong if there was no screaming. So, when the screaming of the young English girl stopped, something was terribly, terribly wrong. The Division waited, if the Captain got in contact with them, something was beyond wrong: something was catastrophic. They waited and prayed nothing catastrophic was happening. Five minutes passed. Something was beyond catastrophic. Something was happening and it was beyond words.

Flash. _"How dare you __**touch **__Kitty! You __**FILTH**__!" screamed the manifested form of a unicorn. It's coat white as snow, its body powerful as the Earth itself, its horn as deadly as a knife and its eyes as dangerous as an erupting volcano. _Flash.

They ran. As fast as their legs could. It was impossibly fast; the speed at which they moved. They launched themselves up the building. They devastated the door. They glared inside. They didn't like what they saw. The girl was still tied down but the Captain was injured. Before him stood a very tall, imposing and impossibly powerful creature of such fury that they immediately backed down and left the room. The righteous justice of the unicorn was one they dared not interrupt.

Outside, the group moved.


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed. To those who didn't, this is the last chapter there is an epilogue after it but this is the last part of the story. Please just let me know if you read it or not. Ta.**

Chapter Ten

Ichigo ran through the kicked in door, Uryu regretted solemnly that the door had already been kicked in; it would have added, he observed silently, such style to their entry. They looked around the room, taking the time to notice how small and how cramped it was; to them, it seemed a miracle that a group as large as them could even fit in the claustrophobic space. Their eyes collectively scanned the room, initially missing the significant sights and instead panning over the intricately inhuman instruments. They looked back. They saw it. It was a beautiful beast. A horn of gold hovered over its target.

"Stop!" roared Ichigo, who was already beginning to channel his energy into Zangetsu, just in case.

The unicorn's head snapped around. The horn brushed the fallen Captain's chest, causing trickles of blood to emerge from a wound so shallow that it could barely be considered a graze. The unicorn hadn't given the Captain a chance to defend himself; that was how many would argue, she won. Ferocity burned like lava inside of the glowing golden globules that sat inside her eye sockets. There was only the vaguest semblance of consciousness behind those eyes, it was a frenzied manifested zanpak-tō who feared, not only for her own life, but for that of her wielder, who remained tied down to the chair, semi-conscious.

"That must be her zanpak-tō." observed Chad simply.

"Wow!" squealed Orihime, "It's beautiful!"

And it was. Despite the fury, burning off it in waves of pure red aggression, the creature remained as beautiful as it would at any other time. Its pupils were gold that glittered delicately but powerfully just as the sun glares down intensely at those who look up to it. Its mane blew about wistfully in the immense gales of air the unicorn was creating through pure killing intent. Its coat was as pure, innocent, invisible and impenetrable as the snow itself, concealing underneath a fight on levels only one person in the room could ever understand.

"It doesn't look very happy to see us." stated Uryu, attempting to be clever and humorous and, annoyingly, succeeding.

"It's not thinking," explained Rukia, "There's consciousness there but it's buried so deep, it can't control itself."

"What about Kitty?" asked Ichigo, his eyes flashing towards her for the briefest of seconds to check her condition, which was invisibly worsening with each second that passed, "Is she okay?"

"If her zanpak-tō manifested without her permission _and _if her zanpak-tō has truly begun to go berserk," replied Rukia, "I doubt there will be much left of Kitty's mind if she wakes up."

"Is there nothing we can-"

"_No! How dare you!_" shouted the unicorn before them telepathically. The voice shot through their minds like a cannonball of pain, obliterating every other thought that tried to cling desperately to their mind beforehand. None of them were used to telepathy on this scale and they were certainly not used to one in which there was shouting. They all visibly flinched as though it were a physical blow, "_How dare you even __**talk **__about her!_"

"This is _not _good," shouted Rukia, fighting the pain throbbing in her skull, "There won't be anything left if we don't do something."

"Any suggestions?" asked Chad.

"Anything would be a good idea about now." stated Uryu, cupping his head in his hands, who could do little to stop the mental onslaught provided by the unicorn.

"I have an idea!" declared Ichigo, who was affected the least by the mental attack, having faced, what he thought, to be much worse mental sieges in the past. He raised Zangetsu and deftly attacked the unicorn that dodged with very little effort. From his new position, he threw Zangetsu's sharpest point down towards Kitty who was semi-conscious on the chair/table that the psychopathic captain had placed her on. The blow never landed, despite being aimed at the restraints holding Kitty down. Instead there was an intense blast of light which threw everyone within a five metre radius to the floor.

Ichigo awoke to ringing in his ears, the ringing drowned out every other noise except the patient throb of his heart, which continued to pound calmly despite the chaos of his brain. His eyes were blurry and slow to react to the simple commands given to them but the brain. His sense of smell had all but vanished, all that he could smell, dim as it was, was the smell of metal. All he could taste in his mouth was iron and his brain knew immediately what the liquid was and exhumed it from his mouth with an unattractive splutter.

He managed to stand up but found his legs swaying underneath his weight. He could feel Zangetsu's weight in his hand but was nervous about the wet and sticky sensation in his other hand. As he raised this mysterious hand to his eyes, he saw a red splat all over it and was able to make the connections. He looked around at his feet and saw blurred figures whom he was able to identify as his nakama, his friends. This annoyed him. This placed a fury and just sense of frustration in him. One that he had seen only a minute ago.

He looked directly ahead. The blurred white vision of a unicorn seemed strangely absent but with his eyes still refusing to focus through the tears of cleansing – the tears his body produced to try and clean the lenses – it was impossible to identify the figure before him whose power levels seemed unstable and immensely powerful, levels he had once owned himself before he had learned control off a certain man with a certain hairstyle. He tried to focus once more but this hesitation cost him dearly and the thing charged, firing him through the walls of the staircase and forcing him onto the corrugated roof of the building below.

Suddenly, his vision cleared and he was on his feet. Zangetsu was burning furiously with delicate blue strings of spiritual energy and Ichigo found himself doing very much the same thing. But it vanished. The strands of glistening blue energy spiralled off onto the wind as his eyes fell onto a figure he had tried to save. Before him stood Kitty. However, there was something significantly wrong and different. This significance became all the more apparent when his eyes glimpsed upon the wispy, ghostly apparition of the white unicorn standing where Kitty was.

"Kitty?" asked Ichigo, feeling it necessary to double check that his eyes were not betraying him, "Is that you?"

Her mouth opened and a single syllable fluttered on the wind currents before being snapped off by a mouth that could not be controlled by the mind. Kitty was no longer Kitty and was fighting for control in a body which was trying to make sense of the three consciousnesses that were trying to win dominance. Kitty had been there for a second but something had sucked her back into the fight for control, whether that were Gerechtes Einhorn, the dangerous side of the unicorn, or Purlicorne, the pacifistic side, remained yet to be seen.

"Kitty, I know you're in there," assured Ichigo, "What is it I need to do?"

"Beat-"

Dominance was lost again. Ichigo wanted to sigh but was aware there was no time. He observed Kitty. Somehow, she had achieved a state that either _was _bankai or some bastardised version thereof. Her eyes, just as Urahara had predicted, had turned gold, swimming in themselves. Her hair had become wild and had several individual strands of hair had converted from their safe copper brown to a blank white of nothingness. Her black and white kimono tops had been replaced by what seemed to be a black doctor's jacket; it was tightly done up and the coat tails of the black jacket flapped about uncontrollably in the wind. In her hand was a unicorn's horn whose composition was diamond alone; sharp enough to slice through anything. Over her own image, lay the projected, ghostly apparition of the very manifested unicorn that belonged inside her soul.

"Now, I can't understand what you might mean by 'sorry' and 'beat'," said Ichigo, "And I've never been much good at solving riddles. But, I've always been very good at knocking sense into people!"

Zangetsu struck the diamond sword that deflected the blow away from Kitty's legs. Kitty's eyes looked up, teary and gold with fear and rage. The blow was returned but Ichigo dodged, rather than blocked. He was aware that a sword of diamond could cut through anything, including diamond, and he was determined to not find out what would happen if it were to touch his weapon. He backed off a bit and activated bankai, knowing full well that even as inexperienced as Kitty was, you should never fight a bankai with shikai.

His own black white-edged coattails floated about on the wind and his compact katana of midnight black slit through the air with speed only his body could match. The diamond sword failed to block the blow but another solution had been created to avoid an amputation. The ghostly apparition had materialised for the briefest of moments and had blocked the blow for just enough time for the diamond sword to move into place, whereupon the very same apparition returned to its not-entirely-solid state. Ichigo leapt back and withdrew Zangetsu from the fight before the diamond sword could slice through it.

"BE CAREFUL ICHIGO!" screamed Rukia from a large hole in a tall building, "YOU NEED TO KNOCK HER UNCONSCIOUS WITHOUT LETTING HER SWORD CUT YOU! IT'S MADE OF DIAMOND!"

"I KNOW!!!" shouted Ichigo, annoyed at the Chappy-obsessed idiot just for having pointed out the very, very obvious but quickly, he had another reason to dislike her stupid statement. For it had provided the very hesitation that Kitty/Gerechtes Einhorn/Purlicorne had been waiting for and the diamond sword had had little pause in piercing Ichigo's left leg and pinning it to the ground, "ARGH!"

"ICHIGO!" screamed the gang.

"Shit!" hissed Ichigo, staring down at his left thigh whose bone had been broken in two by the diamond sword that had pierced a metre into the building below, pinning him like a cornered animal to the position he was in. He looked up and saw Kitty standing before him. Her face was contorted in confusion and sadness but her eyes burned with fury.

She was standing a foot away from him. His leg wasn't bleeding _that _badly. He'd had worse. And she was standing less than a foot away from him, closing the gap with every second. He smiled slightly. She took another step. He raised his fist. His fist collided with her face and her eyes rolled backwards. Her body fell limp to the floor, unconscious, and her sword returned to its normal zanpak-tō of steel and metal form. But the damage had been done and Ichigo's right leg buckled under the effort placed on it from the blood loss it was fighting against. The colour vanished, only to return under the watchful orange glow of a familiar friend.

***

"So," observed Uryu, "That proves it. You owe me five hundred, Ichigo."

"You're kidding! I never agreed to using sterling!" spat Ichigo, "You changed the terms!"

"I never said there were any terms to begin with." replied Uryu.

"You stupid Quincy!!" shouted Ichigo, launching himself towards a ready fist, which knocked him down faster than he could notice, "You bastard! My nose is bleeding!"

"Good," said Uryu, "It suits you."

A cough pierced the argument. A recovered Kitty and her guardian-until-she's-in-control-of-her-schizophrenic-sword stood before them. Kitty's face was peaceful and calm after having been healed into consciousness by Orihime. Aasa, the aforementioned guardian, was charged by the Soul Society, who begrudgingly freed him of all charges on the basis that they couldn't justify repeating what they tried to do to Rukia without risking yet another invasion by a group of teenagers, with the care of Kitty until such a time as she had achieved bankai and subdued both sides of her zanpak-tō.

"Oh, it's you." observed Uryu.

"Yup," replied Kitty, back to her bubbly, quirky self, "And I'm back to having to listen to my zanpak-tō argue with itself. I wanted to thank you guys for saving me and persuading the Soul Society into letting Aasa off the hook."

Ichigo smiled slightly. It wasn't exactly persuasion. Well, unless someone had changed the definition in the dictionary to something along the lines of blackmail, in which case, Ichigo had quite adeptly persuaded Soul Society to agree to terms they weren't entirely happy with. Though, the persuasion fell more along the lines of 'do this or I promise I'll invade with five people and a cat _again _and kick you into next year'. Though his language had not gone down well with the Captain Commander, he had been forced to admit defeat because he had more important things to focus on, such as the Winter War.

"It was no problem," said Rukia, "Ichigo's a sucker for saving people."

Ichigo frowned – more so than usual.

"And playing the hero." added Uryu.

Ichigo frowned even deeper – more so than usual.

"Oh, yeah," agreed Rukia, "Oh! And having epic battles which don't really last that long."

Ichigo glared – more so than usual.

"And getting injured!!" added Orihime.

Ichigo was ready to explode – more so than after a conversation with Kon.

"And destroying buildings." added Chad.

Ichigo exploded – more so than after being woken up by his father.

"WHAT THE HELL, GUYS?!" screamed Ichigo, "GET OFF MY BACK!"

"We'd better get going before Miss tracks us down and beats us up for not getting on the plane at the exact allocated time," explained Uryu, "I don't want bruises."

The group nodded in agreement and left. Kitty and Aasa waved after them, temporarily letting any unanswered questions remain unanswered. They eventually left and the group, now sitting on the plane, began to ask questions. Questions that they suspected would remain unanswered until Uryu finally bothered to go and research the answers – no one else would. The most prominent questions replayed over and over again in their heads. Where was Alfie? What would happen to Kitty and Aasa? And long would it be until War was upon them?

Despite the questions, they had picked up a lot of English. Most of it was useless and consisted entirely of idioms they didn't understand and swear words they already knew. Overall, it had been like any other adventure they had ever had; unforgettable but failing to benefit them in any way other than them having succeeded in whatever it was they had done.

**A/N: Let me know what you think of the ending, epilogue still to come but let me know what you think. I like the way it ends – it ends very much in the way it begins: suddenly and without a hell of a lot of information – but I'm curious to know what you guys think. **


	12. Epilogue

Epilogue

A flurry of heated air penetrated the rain's path, violently disrupting the norm. The diamond symphony cascaded as sheets of iridescent light shattered against the dark objects lining the streets. Metal monsters sat, immovable and impressive, allowing patiently the delicate gems of water to rebound off of their bodies. Stars of everlasting fire were hidden by deep, dark clouds who rumbled impatiently, awaiting the arrival of the creature for whom the one waited.

Crouched on a roof, sitting like a lioness ready to pounce, the university student sat. She was, of course, no longer _just _a university student. Neither was she alone, or at least, if she were, she was never alone for long. Distantly, the familiar cry of despair and pain rang out. Something about the cry forced a shiver down a spine, a growth of goosebumps. Sighing once again, disrupting the air once more, the figure leapt off the building with all the grace of a gazelle.

Her recently controlled brown fringe bobbed slightly as it had not yet received the total soaking that the rain evilly planned it to have. The metre long, usually copper brown hair, had contorted to black as deep as midnight and clung to the black material that itself clung desperately to the skin of the young woman. Between the intervening years, she had had a tattoo placed on her right and left palms. From her left, her right palm unsheathed a sword of silent, silver beauty.

She waited. They had become more intelligent, more sneaky and they had become increasingly more powerful. It was a result of the Winter War. She had been told that much but remembered more vividly the day when she was forbidden from taking part. The reason why did not matter, all she knew was that she had been rejected and her glistening eyes of muddy brown had scanned the country every day thereafter for the creatures she knew could hurt others.

Her foot connected with the roof of a familiar building. A grin as wide as the world itself formed on her face. Millennium Point, Birmingham. The exact place she had first met Aasa. She sighed, once again disrupting the air with her presence. The rain noticed this disruption and had lost its grip on patience. Rain, as hard and powerful as bullets and as sharp and deadly as daggers, fell harshly onto the woman's back. Her face responded by twitching ever so slightly from the impact on her back. Thunder rolled, hiding underneath a sound as loud and bone-shaking as that of an exploding bomb but far, far more dangerous.

A hollow. As hollow and sad as the name suggested. It was not always the hollow's fault that they were that way. Frequently, it was a Soul Reaper's negligence but it was then a Soul Reaper's duty to assure that they stopped it. She couldn't help but feel that if they worked a little harder in the first place, there wouldn't be as much of a problem. Her opinion would never be heard though. She had never had the standing that Ichigo had, despite becoming a Soul Reaper in very much the same way.

She leapt. She fell. She dived. Sword collided with mask. Sword slid through mask. Sword destroyed mask. The mask and its body died away, disappearing into tiny invisible particles that would then fly off to deliver the creature to either Soul Society or the other place, whose name she refused to speak. Her attention was dragged away sharply. Footstep pierced puddle. Soggy, distinctly wet noise shot through the rainy atmosphere to the woman's ears. She spun and held her weapon ready, experience had taught her that hesitation was lethal to everyone and everything but oneself.

"Stand where you are!" she shouted, her voice destroying the wet, damp silence that the rain had every intention of maintaining. The figure paid no heed and moved forwards. She raised her sword and commanded once more, under the rays of lightning that pierced the heavens, "Halt!" the figure ignored, moving forwards once again. She frowned and prevented her body from instinctively taking a step back. Her third command was drowned out by the rolling thunder that penetrated her very bones.

"Kitty?" asked the voice.

"You." she hissed.

"You know me?" asked the voice.

"How could I forget _you_?" she spat.

"I wanted to apologise." stated the voice.

"Save it for the devil."

"Won't you hear me?"

"What do you think I'm doing now?" asked Kitty sarcastically, one hand on hip, one tightly around the handle, "Talking to the rain? It would make for better conversation, I'll tell you that."

"It wasn't my fault."

"Of course not."

"I didn't mean to."

"But of course."

"I want your forgiveness."

"You already had it."

The soaked figure, whose clothes resembled the rain itself with more accuracy than they would have ever done clothing, looked up. Their eyes glistened with tears of what one would imagine as hope but what someone with experience would know as something else. The man smiled. He sought to be forgiven of his sins, assuming that would make them go away, as though they never existed. He was wrong. As is anyone else who allows their mistakes to float away, or so Kitty believed.

"Thank you." he began to walk away.

"That doesn't change what you did," continued Kitty, "It will _never _change what you did. You musn't let yourself forget that. You should live every moment of your life regretting what you did. You should let your sins burn scars onto your heart forever more. That's what I believe now. That's what _you _made me believe. Thanks."

The man vanished into the darkness of the eternal rain and was replaced by another, whom Kitty held no grudge against. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with a weary happiness that he knew all to well. He frowned. It was not healthy but nothing he could ever do would rid her of the scars she had inflicted on herself. He knew that Rukia had the same problem. It was something of a certain class of people. The class of people that were never able to forgive themselves even when everything, everyone else had. No divine being could assure them of their innocence. Nothing. They carried their scars until death, because they felt they should. Because they felt no one else should. Because they felt they could never be forgiven, should never be forgiven.

"That was him?" asked Aasa.

"Yeah," laughed Kitty with a laugh so fake it was unbearable, "Funny how it took him four years."

"You're all grown up." stated Aasa.

"Thanks for noticing," replied Kitty, "Why're you here? You finished a year ago."

"I'm allowed to visit aren't I?"

"S'pose." her eyes fell to the floor unconsciously.

"Still carrying mistakes?"

"Naturally."

"You can stop."

"No," she replied, "I can't."

He sighed, "I'm going. Do you remember what I said to you the last time we were here?"

"You're completely useless with a sword, I'd have been better off fighting him with my teeth?" quoted Kitty.

"Before that."

"Your name?" asked Kitty.

He nodded, "For old times' sake, 'My name is Aasa Patorikku'."

He walked off. She sighed, "I know."

**A/N: The end. Please tell me what you think. I think the next story I'm writing will be about Batman. Maybe a Bleach/Batman crossover. Not sure. Might be worth keeping your eyes open. Thanks for reading this guys!**


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